Supreme Swordsman Zoro
by KaiokenGuy
Summary: What if Zoro gained some swordsmanship knowledge before he fought Kuina? Where did the swordsmanship knowledge come from? Well let me tell you the tale of Miyamoto Sakeraki one swordsman who became the best in his branch in an alternative Earth, after his demise, his spirit was taken by the devil to be tortured due to the sins he accumulated, his memories stripped landed to Zoro.
1. Miyamoto's fate

It was a gentle summer day in August, the leaves were dancing in the wind as the heat of the sun was roasting the earth, an old man who wore a black robe on his body was resting in the shade of a tree as a youth was training his swordsmanship under his supervision. This man was Miyamoto Sakeraki the greatest swordsman to ever live.

His hair was done in a top knot on his head and he had various scars on his face that showed through how many difficulties he had gone through, how many duels he won and lost across the many years of his life, he was already reaching one hundred and ten years old this year and he looked a bit under seventy.

The youth took his training seriously, he was an outsider who heard about Miyamoto's tragedy, as none of his sons or daughters wanted to inherit his swordsmanship, Miyamoto was extremely depressed after he heard that but he realized that he didn't have any rights to influence their lives, he abandoned them at a young age to realize his dream of becoming the world greatest swordsman.

His children loathed Miyamoto because due to his selfishness his wife died at a young age, both his two sons and daughter hated him thoroughly and ignored him, they had already left his house a long time ago and hoped he died, unfortunately for them, his technique led to him having a higher lifespan than most humans making him able to even reach the age of two hundred or more.

The youth who was slashing at the wooden post was called Bito, he was an unknown young lad Miyamoto saved from some thugs, he supposedly owed them money from his father's gambling debts that he now owed due to his father passing away.

Seeing an opportunity to pass down his techniques and redeem himself in young Bito he decided to adopt him and take him as his student. As the greatest swordsman in the world, he had fame and money aplenty but not even that made his real children come back to him.

Unfortunately, Bito wasn't that talented in swordsmanship and it would take him quite a long while to learn all of Miyamoto's techniques. Miyamoto from time to time would instruct him when he did a mistake on his katas.

As things progressed years passed more and more, it's been almost twenty years since Miyamoto took Bito as his student and foster son and finally, he learned all of Miyamoto's techniques finishing his training at thirty-four years old.

Bito's hands were red as blood splattered on the ground, Miyamoto's trusty sword which he used to conquer the world of swordsmen was now found in its owner's gut, Miyamoto wanted to retaliate as his honed instincts told him to but unfortunately for him, the wound was too much for him to be able to fight anymore. It was a fatal wound that would kill him slowly now and Bito wouldn't let him get away to heal it.

Bito opened his mouth to say something as Miyamoto gasped in pain:

"I'm sorry master but some people out there don't want your techniques to be spread even further."

Miyamoto growled as he said in an angry tone of voice:

"You animal, I saved you, I took care of you and taught you and this is how you repay me for all I did to you?"

Bito chuckled somberly and said:

"You still don't get it, do you? It was all a setup."

Moments of the past started to flash around Miyamoto's memory as sometimes Bito would look at him with strange eyes that seemed to contain pity, but he was too happy to realize that back then his old age muddled his thoughts and instincts, his sorrow and depression that he just got out of added on that.

Miyamoto continued with his dying breath:

"You... you..." but before he could continue his words his hard started to limp as his heart was stopping pumping blood in his body, fog started to appear in his vision as his life started to run away from him, bits of his past started to appear in his mind replaying them again and again.

It was always the same moment when he left his wife and children to follow his dream, he chuckled to himself as the images disappeared and his shallow breathing stopped forever.

Bito kneeled near the body for a while sobbing, while a cloaked man suddenly appeared behind him and said in a cold tone of voice:

"Your mission is done, I'm here to get rid of the body."

Bito got up from the kneeling position he was into and put himself between Miyamoto's body and the cloaked man while saying:

"You already took his life and his techniques what else do you want from him? Let me give him a proper burial!"

The cloaked man shook his head and said:

"That's not for you to decide." The cloaked man suddenly appeared behind Bito and karate chopped him in the neck making him go limp and unconscious.

Miyamoto's soul saw everything that happened as it was ripped from his body by a bony claw, it was the Reaper himself who came to collect his soul. The Reaper didn't say anything as he tied Miyamoto in chains and started dragging him towards a white door that appeared in mid-air, not letting him see everything else that happened below him.

The Reaper entered the door with Miyamoto tied up behind him, there was nothing inside the room that they appeared beside a chair and a desk, the Reaper tied him to the chair with the chains and left, Miyamoto tried to escape from the chains but even though they were loosely tied to him they just wouldn't come off.

Miyamoto decided to wait, he wasn't a religious person as all he wanted during his whole life was to reach the peak of the sword and thus he neglected every other part of his life, so he didn't know where he was currently.

He just waited in the room and waited he couldn't perceive time in the room so he didn't know how much time gone before someone appeared suddenly in the chair.

He was a handsome man with horns on his head that wore a dark suit and he had deep red hair, he adjusted his monocle as he pulled a thick dossier of papers from god knows where.

He opened the dossier and started talking:

"Miyamoto Sakeraki, age 134, the murder count fifty thousand, abandoned family for a selfish dream which resulted in the death of Miyuki Sakeraki."

He adjusted his monocle again as he continued to read the dossier and he continued to say things that made Miyamoto's face pale as if he wasn't pale enough for being just a soul.

Miyamoto opened his mouth to say something but the man waved his hand and a zipper appeared on Miyamoto's face that closed itself not letting him say anything.

Miyamoto started to struggle but after a while, he just stopped while the man continued to read the deeds he did his whole life.

The man finished:

"Killed by foster son so your techniques can't be shared with anyone else." The man hummed as he closed the dossier and tapped it then he said:

"It's not my job to do this but god took a vacation and left me here, I'm so annoyed with that fool..."

Miyamoto's eyes widened at the mention of God, even though he wasn't religious he still knew the basics of who God was.

The horned man threw the dossier away from the table and put the monocle from his face in his chest pocket while simultaneously opening the zipper on Miyamoto's mouth after Miyamoto was freed he started to spew questions like a machine gun:

"Where am I, who are you? What am I doing here? Am I dead?"

"Limbo, I am the Devil, Yes you are dead and you are getting judged here, as I said before this was supposed to be God's job but that fool took a vacation and left all this tiresome work to me."

Miyamoto blinked his eyes as all his questions were solved but afterward, his mouth was zippered again as the devil was thinking on how to handle him, for all his sins he should be sent to the eighth or ninth level of hell but since god wasn't here the devil decided to have some fun.

"I should send you to hell but I have a funnier way to torture you, I will just destroy your soul directly and slowly, I will strip you of your memories then torture you for all eternity personally! Isn't that great?"

Miyamoto started to pale even further making him almost transparent, the devil put on some black gloves on his hands and dragged the chair Miyamoto was tied to a dark door with skulls of different shapes and colors embedded in it.

Miyamoto wanted to scream or escape but he couldn't he was tied with the chains of death from the Reaper, only the Reaper or his equivalent could free him from them, unfortunately, the equivalent was dragging him towards an eternity of pain!

Miyamoto was dragged inside the door and the torture started, the Devil used his gloved hands to rip open Miyamoto's head then he started to gather all of his memories into a white ball of light which he threw into a random portal he opened, it was one of the worlds where he gifted humans with some fruits in exchange of them being unable to swim, it was one of the funnier and interesting worlds he interacted with.

As the black door closed itself you would hear the terrified and pained cries of Miyamoto the greatest swordsman Earth number 534952 could see. From time to time these cries would stop as the Devil had to judge some new poor souls who died recently.

Inside Earth number 56666 a young man with green hair who wore nothing but a green gi and sandals was training intensely using a dozen swords in his hands and mouth while mumbling to himself:

"More swords mean more strength!" this man was known as Roronoa Zoro and his dream was to become the world's greatest swordsman!

As he trained using his swords he slipped and the bunch of swords buried him underneath piling themselves on him and hitting him in the head repeatedly, erasing his sense of direction forever!

Fortunately for the young man, a bright ball of light suddenly appeared near him from a portal which closed itself as soon as it opened, the ball fell directly on his head full of bumps as he cried out in an even more exaggerated way than before. He now became thoroughly unconscious.

As Zoro slept Miyamoto's memories infiltrated his brain and soul as they tried to take control of his body but Zoro wasn't a normal fellow at all, suddenly out of his soul a shadowy being with three heads and six arms shouted and grabbed the memories before devouring all of them.

Afterward, Zoro's mind palace started to fix itself at quick speeds while the useful memories from Miyamoto were assimilated while the useless ones were purged and threw away, Miyamoto's sense of direction replaced Zoro's broken one making him whole again while giving him the experience of an advanced swordsman.

Of course, such a swordsman wasn't anything big in Zoro's world but it gave him a sturdy foundation which he could now follow to create his techniques and grow stronger faster!

Suddenly Zoro opened his eyes and scattered all the swords that were piled on him then took a nearby one in his hand and did a horizontal slash in the air, a strange look appeared on his face as he felt like now knew how to fight as a swordsman properly while he also seemed to have experience in life and death duels even though he never fought anyone before.

Zoro ran over towards a hollow tree where he hid his real swords which he tied to his back and he smiled:

"It seems I got enlightened on swordsmanship after I hit myself on the head with the sword!"

Zoro couldn't be any more wrong about this one.


	2. Roronoa Zoro swordsman extraordinare

Zoro tightened the ropes around his shoulders to make sure his swords wouldn't fall off, he did with such ease that it seemed like he did it countless times, the experiences of Miyamoto helping him in this regard as well.

Zoro looked at the bunch of wooden swords on the ground and scoffed thinking he didn't need them at all anymore now that he got enlightened to swordsmanship, he thought he was already a hotshot by now, even though he didn't think he was the greatest swordsman he already thought of himself as an expert.

Zoro started to walk away from his training spot in a forest nearby the village he was abandoned in, Zoro was a child with no father or mother and he lived day by day by hunting and gathering wild fruit and plants when he was a baby he lived with the help of an old couple who passed away some years later.

Zoro made his way towards the cemetery where he kneeled towards two unnamed graves where he started to talk:

"Grandpa, Grandma I have achieved enlightenment of the sword and now I will go and challenge the nearby dojo's to temper myself! I will one day become the strongest swordsman in the world and achieve my dream, for now, I will have to leave so I won't be able to visit you anymore, I hope you will forgive me." Zoro bowed towards the graves and lit some makeshift incense he took out from his pants pockets. He created the incense out of some special wood he found in the forest along with some animal fat and wild berries, he learned how to do it from a hunter from the village when he asked why other people were lighting incense on one of his visits.

Zoro was broke so he couldn't buy any incense even if he wanted to, there was no job he could do properly all he knew was to fight and there was no such job for him in the tiny village, the dojo also didn't pay anything and all it did was give food time to time, there was also a fee needed to join the dojo.

Zoro decided to challenge the village's dojo first to get revenge on the people who bullied him a few years ago when he asked them to teach him how to handle a sword, they told him he would be a worthless kid with no talent in the sword but he trained himself every day afterward using unconventional training techniques to temper his body but he was incredibly clumsy up till he hit himself with the sword in the head.

In another universe the moment he hit himself in the head with the bunch of swords he would have lost his sense of direction while losing his clumsiness and gaining a normal balance, however, it was different in this one with the help of Miyamoto's memories and experiences he gained the balance of an experienced swordmaster while fixing his destroyed sense of direction.

Zoro left walking towards the dojo that was located in the middle of the village, it didn't take him much time as the village wasn't big at all, he stayed near the dojo's entrance for a little while calming himself then he shouted:

"I challenge the dojo!"

One adult and a few children walked outside the dojo and when the man saw Zoro he sneered and said:

"You brat, didn't you like the beating I gave you some years ago? now you came to stir up trouble again?"

Zoro gnashed his teeth as he looked at the man with anger then he said in a low voice:

"I'm not the same as some years ago if you are too much of a pussy to take the challenge I will just destroy your banner right now!" Zoro unsheathed one sword skillfully from his back and took a stance where he put his right foot in front of him and his left foot behind while he kept his sword in front.

The man sneered towards Zoro not recognizing this basic stance from Earth thinking he was bluffing, he unsheathed the sword he always kept by his waist and decided to give Zoro a thorough trashing and throw him out of the village this time, he was a nuisance to him and he ever came back again he decided he would just kill him!

But unfortunately for the man, Zoro came at him at speeds he couldn't register and disarmed him instantly, Zoro looked at the man with a questioning expression then he smiled and said:

"It seems all my training paid up, now your dojo banner is mine!" Zoro didn't even bother to take the banner down he just slashed it from where he stood directly cutting it in two.

The man looked at the sword on the ground then at his hand which was bleeding a little from the strength that Zoro used to forcefully disarm him then he collapsed on the ground in a heap. The children started to surround him crying out:

"Sensei!"

But Zoro didn't care about this at all, he sheathed his sword then left, there was no reason for him to continue staying in the village, it was time for him to go on his own adventure and challenge dojos across the country to temper his techniques!

Zoro wasn't sure what were his limits with the sword he decided to challenge any dojos he came across so he would be able to find them, he didn't know how he compared to the world's greatest swordsman he needed to find someone who had information on him!

Zoro thus started traveling after he got himself enough food by hunting a few boars and making jerky out of them while donating the rest of the meat that he didn't need to the villagers, he also made sure to get enough water and berries so he would have enough food for his journey.

The closest village near Zoro's was about sixty kilometers so he had to walk for quite a while before he would be able to get to it, but Zoro didn't mind he would take it as training, he would also walk on his arms from time to time and tie heavy rocks to his back so he could train better.

From time to time he would use his swords to repeat some katas he would seemingly learn from nowhere but he wasn't bothered by the information his brain was feeding him thinking it was just natural as a swordsmanship enlightened person.

After a few days of walking and training at the same time, Zoro finally got towards his next village where he decided to directly challenge the dojo and move on, just like the last one the adult teacher of the dojo lost immediately and collapsed like a sack of potatoes afterward, all the inhuman training Zoro did combine with the new swordsmanship techniques he learned from Miyamoto's memories made him a beast comparable to some veteran pirates in strength and maybe even some middle-low ranked marines.

Normal humans with bits of training couldn't do anything to him as he went by villages and challenged their dojos while destroying their banners and reputations, he also resupplied from time to time but some other times he couldn't find any wild game and had to resort to stealing to fill his tummy.

After a while of safe journeys, he finally met the first danger of traveling bandits!

The chief bandit was a muscular man with a mohawk and he was shirtless, on his bare chest could be seen multiple tattoos and his cronies wore white face masks, the man growled at Zoro and said:

"Kid those are some nice swords you have on your back, leave them behind and we might just leave you alone this time."

Zoro, of course, wouldn't let his swords behind, he worked hard to get both of them thus the conflict started between the bandit gang and Zoro. Unfortunately for the bandit gang, they chose the wrong target this time Zoro didn't even have to unsheath his second sword before every bandit collapsed on the ground with various sword marks across their body, only the leader was still standing on his feet but after a few seconds Zoro appeared behind him as he sheathed his sword and mumbled:

"One sword style: ten falling lotus petals."

It was one of Miyamoto's executing techniques he mastered during his youth on Earth, Zoro used it on the chief bandit and ended his life swiftly, Zoro wasn't bothered much by the kill he did, he didn't find any problems with it as he did it in self-defense, Zoro didn't have many morals as he grew pretty much alone after his adoptive grandparents deaths, all he knew was the sword and how to survive now.

But he also had his pride and dream so he wasn't truly bereft of morals as he wouldn't attack civilians for no reason, he started to search around the bandit's bodies to find anything of use and he found some pouches of bellies here and there they weren't much at all, only one thousand or two thousand belli enough for him to fill his stomach for a few days, these bandits were really poor!

Fortunately, the bandit chief had a ten thousand belli on him and he also had a bounty of equal value which he could cash in, the man had a wanted poster of himself in his chest pockets, Zoro guessed it was for bragging rights with his fellow bandits.

Fortunately, Zoro killed the bandits near the village so he didn't have to drag the chiefs bandit body too much, as Zoro dragged the body through the village people started to point and whisper at him out loud and after a few seconds someone gasped:

"Wait for a little, isn't that Willies body?" A commotion appeared in the whole village as Zoro dragged the body towards the prison of the village where he cashed in the bounty, the sheriff from the village frowned as he looked at the body then said:

"Kid I'm not sure if you killed this wanted man or not but you don't have to get the whole body to cash in the bounty, a head is enough as long as it's recognizable, now I have to get rid of the body tsk."

Zoro ignored the man and left the prison to go directly to the local pub of the village where he ate and drank some milk to his heart content, he was still too young for alcohol but he couldn't wait to try it! He was intersted in it as the adults all looked happy when they drank it.

Afterward, he paid for his meal and left the pub to find a place where he could sleep, tomorrow he would challenge the dojo that existed in the village!

Koshiro was an average looking male with slicked black hair who wore a grey gi and glasses, he looked outside the window and muttered to himself:

"So the kid who breaks dojos came to our village, let's see if he has what it takes to defeat Kuina."

Afterward, he looked towards the sword that was exposed on the wall. The sword has a pure-white hilt with a circular hand-guard. The sheath is painted white and the type of the blade is a straight blade.

It was his family heirloom the Wado Ichimonji a prized sword known as one of the twenty-one O Wazamono swords, he continued muttering to himself as he looked at the sword:

"Kuina your talent is great, hopefully, you will make better use of the sword unlike me." Then he sighed and became flustered as she heard a girls voice come from outside his room that said:

"Father have you called for me?" Koshiro shook his head inwardly and said out loud:

"No, no Kuina I was just muttering to myself." The girl's voice was heard again:

"Oh ok, then I will be back to practicing my swordsmanship then."

Koshiro agreed to her words then he got back to looking outside the window, he could see Zoro who was perching himself in a nearby tree to sleep, he chose a spot close to the dojo so he could challenge it early.

Koshiro tried to observe Zoro better and he nodded to himself, the young lad had quite a lot of potential he would be a good rival for his daughter.

Zoro just started to sleep soundly in the tree as a snot bubble appeared near his nose while he snored, he didn't know what fate had in store for him.


	3. Roronoa Zoro swordsman extraordinare pt2

Zoro yawned as he woke up and fell face forward from the tree he was in, his swords, fortunately, landing near him and not hitting him in the head. Zoro started to nurse his head as a bump appeared on it and he cursed under his breath saying:

"Ok next time don't sleep in a tree anymore."

Afterward, he climbed back into the tree as his rations were still there. After he had a plentiful breakfast he decided that it was time to challenge the next dojo!

Zoro walked lazily towards the dojo hoping that this one would have an actual challenge for him instead of easily slashing through the competition as he did in all of the other dojos. As he walked into the dojo he was met by a kind-looking man with glasses it was Koshiro the dojo master.

Zoro didn't even let Koshiro give him a welcome before he said as he unsheathed one of his swords:

"I challenge your dojo to a battle!" Koshiro coughed as he looked at Zoro and thought to himself:

"This lad is quite impolite he didn't even let me say anything." Koshiro shook his head and said:

"Before you can challenge me you have to challenge my best student first, also no real swords since it's just a spar," Zoro mumbled to himself for a while but he didn't care as long as he fought someone skilled, then he said while sheathing his swords:

"Ok call your best student over I doubt he will be able to beat me!"

Koshiro smiled towards Zoro and said in a loud voice:

"Kuina there's a challenger come and meet him."

Out of the dojo came a blue-haired girl who wore red shorts sandals and a white shirt she had two wooden swords in her hands that were used for training, she looked at Zoro then said:

"Ok Father it should be better to fight in the back as there is more space." She motioned for Zoro to follow her and continued afterward:

"You can also leave your swords down as you won't use them here." Zoro didn't want to leave his swords behind but he decided to comply with her due to him being the challenger and them being the host.

They got to the back of the dojo where multiple other children were waiting for the fight of the two of them, Zoro looked around and smirked to himself then said:

"I practice a style which requires two or more swords could I get two more swords?" Kuina didn't see a problem with that and made one of the children who was waiting for the spar to begin to get him two more swords.

Zoro tied two swords on his back and left only one in his hand, Kuina narrowed her eyes at his actions and said angrily:

"Are you looking down on me cause I'm a girl? Why aren't you using all your swords if your style needs more than one?"

Zoro chuckled and said:

"I'm not looking down on you because you are a girl but almost no one I fought made me need to use more than one sword if you feel you are up to it then let's start!"

Koshiro walked to the middle of the training area they were now situated in and said:

"I will now count down from ten when my count reaches zero you can start the spar!"

Zoro nodded his head at the same time as Kuina did, as their eyes locked sparks could be seen going between them.

Koshiro started counting down ten, nine, eight... zero!

Zoro launched himself directly at Kuina his fighting stance with no openings, Kuina was impressed by Zoro's fighting stance but she wasn't a slouch herself, Zoro attacked using an overhead slash but Kuina parried it and tried to disarm him directly but Zoro dashed backward and took some distance between the two of them, it seemed he was ready to unleash a sword technique!

Zoro took a sword drawing stance as he stood in a horse stance, a peculiar aura started to surround him, Kuina's eyes widened, Koshiro's eyes widened as well, he didn't think he would find such a talented child in the east blue the weakest sea in the world.

Zoro was ready to use his one sword style technique but Kuina took a defensive stance that made it impossible for him to unleash his technique without getting hit by a retaliatory strike, Kuina was quite skilled!

Zoro smirked to himself, he finally found a challenge after so many beaten dojos and disappointing adults he found someone similar to his age who was quite strong!

Zoro decided to go through with his technique as he directly appeared behind Kuina his green gi was cut at the stomach while Kuina's shirt was cut into two, revealing that she was strapping her growing breasts to make them not impede her movement and techniques.

All of the children didn't know what to say, who won and who lost? Koshiro immediately appeared before his daughter and gave her a spare shirt, Zoro looked back at her and said:

"So who do you think won?"

Kuina shook her head a grim smile appearing on her face:

"You have gone through with your technique even though you knew you would get injured as well... but you, you would have split me into two if you used a real sword, while I would have split your stomach open, I'm pretty sure I know who would die first... it's your win." Kuina's eyes started watering as he ran away Koshiro tried to stop her but the speed she was running at was quite fast and he didn't want to injure her pride even further.

Koshiro looked at Zoro with a lack of smile on his face now and then said:

"You have won the spar... you can challenge me after you prepare yourself and rest a bit." Zoro nodded his head but he actually felt quite bad for Kuina, why did she act like that? Wasn't it just a spar?

He decided to follow her, as he didn't have a bad sense of direction now, he found her quite easy, she was crying in Koshiro's room as she looked at Wado Ichimonji, Zoro walked slowly near her and patted her on the back, she started shaking at Zoro's touch and when she looked back her eyes were red and full of tears, she gritted her teeth and said:

"You came to mock me? Cause I'm a girl and I lost to you?"

Zoro didn't know what to say, what was with this I'm a girl thing? She was very skilled and she only lost to him because he was enlightened on swordsmanship or that's what he thought, Zoro decided to sit near her and started speaking:

"You didn't lose because you are a girl, your skills are actually pretty good and your strength is good as well, it's just that I'm better and not because I'm a guy."

Kuina's eyes started to stop watering and she said:

"But from the looks, you are even younger than me, what kind of training did you do to reach such skill and power?"

Zoro scratched his head, would she believe him if he told her he got enlightened of swordsmanship by hitting himself on the head with a bunch of wooden swords?

He decided to not make himself a fool in front of the only person he respected up till now and said:

"Well if you want to I can show what kind of training I do right now, why don't you follow me back in the training yard?"

Kuina started to clean her tear-filled eyes and nodded her head then Zoro got up and offered her a hand so she could get up as well. As she followed behind him Zoro said:

"Ok now I will need a bunch of big rocks and rope, and um well that's kind of all do you have any weights by any chance?"

Kuina looked at Zoro with incredulous eyes, didn't he know this kind of training could stunt his growth? He already looked quite the frail little guy for some reason even though his strength was anything but that.

Kuina found some weights that the adults trained with and got him some rope, there were large rocks in the training yard as well so she didn't have to find any.

Zoro smiled towards her and picked up the weights but the weights were so light for him that he accidentally threw them high up into the air till they almost disappeared.

Zoro sweatdropped at the interaction while Kuina eyes bulged out at Zoro's actual strength, it seemed he held back even more against her, with his monstrous strength she could have been cleaved into two with the wooden sword alone!

Zoro scratched the back of his neck and waited a bit for the weights to fly down then he caught them making him grunt, the gravity combined with the weights and the speed of them falling made quite the impact on his little body, he let the weights down and then started to wonder, what if he trained like this instead but with heavier things?

Kuina saw the strange look in Zoro's eyes and said:

"You want to train like that? What kind of freak are you?" Zoro stopped pondering his ideas cut out by Kuina's words then he just chuckled awkwardly, he didn't have many human interactions before and he was still learning how to act with other people so he didn't know if he did anything wrong.

Zoro then started to teach Kuina on what kind of training he did, as Kuina looked at the inhuman training Zoro used to train every day she realized that her loss wasn't a mistake from her.

But one thing still eluded her, where did Zoro learn his swordsmanship? could he be such a genius that he created it himself?

When Kuina asked him that question Zoro decided to tell her the truth, when she heard that he got enlightened about swordsmanship after he got hit on the head with a bunch of wooden swords she just straight laughed out loud and said:

"You are joking aren't you?"

Zoro shook his head Kuina's eyes started to take a serious look as she continued:

"Wait you got enlightened in swordsmanship due to that? How is that even possible, swordsmanship enlightenment doesn't work like that at all!"

Zoro didn't know what to tell her, and thus just patted her on the shoulder while not saying anything else, but a fire could be seen in Kuina's eyes, he decided that from now on he would train with Zoro and spar with him every day, she also had the same dream as him to become the world's greatest swordsman!

She didn't tell him her dream yet though, it was in another time where they would discuss dreams.

Koshiro walked outside of the dojo and his smile was back on his face, then he told Zoro:

"There's no reason to spar anymore since you defeated Kuina there's no reason to fight me anymore you have defeated our dojo." He presented the dojo's banner to Zoro but Zoro didn't want to cut it he looked at Koshiro and then said:

"I wonder.. uh, I don't know your name, I want to join your dojo, I think that training here would help me a lot." Koshiro's smile widened at Zoro's words then he said:

"Well, of course, you can train here and my name is Koshiro I'm happy to welcome you to our dojo Zoro."

Zoro looked at Koshiro with a strange look on his face and said:

"How do you know my name?"

Koshiro chuckled and said:

"Well aren't you quite the popular one? You would always shout your name when you defeated other dojo's and your fame spread quite a bit so of course, I know your name quite a lot of people know your name."

Zoro nodded his head that made quite a bit of sense, when he looked to his left where Kuina was supposed to be he found out she wasn't there anymore, she was already trying to lift some rocks that he lifted before using the ropes tied to them.

It seemed that she really wanted to start her training already, Even though she was visibly struggling to lift the rock using the rope, however her inner fire was already lit and she wouldn't stop even if her body gave out.

Zoro smiled towards Kuina's antics he needed someone talented like her to be his sparring partner, they could be each others sharpening stones.

Zoro found out he enjoyed human interactions that he was so starved from since he was very young.


	4. Two dreamers

Zoro watched as Kuina struggled to lift the boulder which was tied with a rope and decided to give her some advice as he did this training many times already and he was quite experienced:

"Try to lift with your legs first instead of with your arms, your arms are quite weak currently and you can't forcefully lift it or it would injure you, I know this myself as I pulled a muscle more than a few times forcing myself to lift it." Zoro then decided to get near her and help her a bit so she could get a better feel on how the training was supposed to be done.

Koshiro smiled at the two of them, at first he didn't want his daughter to follow in his footsteps but seeing her so determined and with that fire in her eyes which reminded of him in his youth, he decided to let her do whatever she wanted, he might even help the two of them with some advice here and there if he felt like it.

Zoro smiled as Kuina started to lift the big boulder slowly as her face puffed up and became red then the boulder fell down heavily leaving a dent in the ground, Zoro laughed and Kuina became even redder in the face as she shouted at him:

"Don't laugh, I will do it better next time!" Zoro stopped laughing at her and said with a smile on his face:

"Of course you will, you are almost as talented at me in swordsmanship!" Kuina huffed and said in a low tone of voice:

"Hmph inflating your ego much aren't you?"

Zoro ignored her words as he didn't know what they meant anyway, was ego something he could eat?

Zoro then let her do the special training he taught her and walked towards Koshiro while saying:

"Should I call you sensei now?"

Koshiro smiled and adjusted his glasses then said:

"If you want to Zoro, but you aren't forced to."

Zoro nodded at Koshiro then bowed while saying:

"Sensei!" Koshiro's smile never left his face as he nodded at Zoro then he called everyone over while also stopping Kuina from training:

"I will teach an important aspect of swordsmanship now, how you should be able to cut what you want and also cut nothing at the same time."

Koshiro walked into the dojo and walked outside with a few pieces of paper and a sword then he said:

"Observe, when you want to cut something you should be able to cut it." He cut the paper into two easily, then he put the piece of paper on the sword and did the same motion as before but the paper wasn't cut at all!

Zoro widened his eyes at Koshiro's control of the sword, it was almost inhuman!

Koshiro smiled at his students who were all bug-eyed and awed at his display, one even picked up the piece of paper that wasn't cut to take a closer look then he cried out in surprise:

"It's whole it isn't cut even one bit not even a nick!" Standing on the edge of a sharp blade and not being cut, what kind of control was that?

Zoro waited for Koshiro to continue explaining:

"As you see to be able to gain such control over your sword you would first have to be able to hear the sword and feel its 'breath' as long as you would be able to hear the breathing of your sword you should be able to cut nothing and everything at the same time." Koshiro's eyes glinted in the sunlight as he said that.

Some kids didn't really understand what he was saying and said:

"But Sensei swords don't breath, they aren't people or animals!" Koshiro chuckled at the student's words then he said:

"Everything in this world has a breath, be it object animal or human, it should be said you have finished my training at the dojo after you grasp this concept until then you will be my students!"

Zoro eyes shadowed as he started thinking about Koshiro's words, he didn't make much sense of them at first but as he thought more and more some of Miyamoto's experiences started to infiltrate his brain making him understand the concept of 'breath' better but he still couldn't really grasp it, the concept of 'breath' touched upon the realm of Haki which Miyamoto never encountered.

Kuina also had a thoughtful expression on her face, her father never taught her anything on the swords besides the basics as he said he didn't want her to follow his footsteps, he was also pretty lax on teaching the dojo as a whole.

Koshiro left the youth to their own devices after he gave them this piece of information, he knew that most of the children here won't be able to grasp the concept of 'breath' in their whole lives but he did it this way to teach Kuina and Zoro without being called out as him having favourites, the parents of the children paid for the food he and the children were eating, he left his swordsman past behind him so he wouldn't take action unless it was truly necessary.

Zoro was in a trance as he thought about 'breath' but Kuina awakened him by tapping him on the shoulder and said:

"Zoro are you okay? You spaced out for a bit there." Zoro shook his head as the influx of memories from Miyamoto settled in his brain, he now felt that his techniques increased a notch further and he also unlocked some skills that Miyamoto used while he was alive giving him inspiration on how to actually create his own sword style.

Zoro smiled towards Kuina and said:

"I'm ok, actually I'm better than before, Sensei's demonstration actually enlightened me a bit more about swordsmanship."

Kuina's eyes widened, then she took a wooden sword that was dropped on the ground in her hands and threw another one to Zoro:

"Show me!"

Zoro smiled and grabbed the sword from mid-air then entered the same stance from before with a few adjustments here and there, Kuina's eyes narrowed as she looked at Zoro's stance, there were almost no flaws she could find in it anymore!

Kuina stood in her own stance as she found out no openings in Zoro's defence so she couldn't attack at all, Kuina started to sweat as the pressure mounted on her, she was actually losing without Zoro even moving a muscle, Kuina started shaking and realized that she couldn't do anything to Zoro anymore then she sighed and dropped her sword.

Zoro had a peculiar look on his face as he looked at Kuina and said:

"What are you doing weren't we supposed to spar?" Kuina didn't know whether to laugh or cry, the pressure that Zoro put on her wasn't even done consciously. What kind of monster was this kid that looked a few years younger than herself?

Kuina sighed as she looked at Zoro, she didn't feel like training anymore as quite a bit of time went by today, it was already starting to turn dark, she grabbed Zoro by the hand then dragged him outside the courtyard to a nearby empty field.

Zoro was flustered and blushed, he never held hand with a girl before so he didn't know what to say or do so he just let her drag him to the field, Kuina laid down on the grass and looked at the stars, Zoro mimicked her actions trying to look natural then he said:

"Why have you brought me out here?"

Kuina responded to his question with a tired voice:

"I always came to this field to watch the stars with my mother when I was young after my mother passed away I came to stargaze after all my swordsmanship training."

Afterwards, Kuina just stood there and looked at the stars, the silence was quite awkward for Zoro but before he could ask her anything else she opened her mouth and asked him:

"Zoro do you have a dream?"

Zoro got up from the ground and puffed up his chest while Kuina looked at him with an expression that asked if what he did was necessary, she was just asking him of his dream, he didn't have to puff up like that for it:

"I want to become the worlds greatest swordsman!"

Kuina's eyes widened at Zoro's response then she chuckled to herself and continued:

"What a coincidence, I want to become the worlds greatest swordswoman myself."

Zoro's eyes widened at her words then a grin appeared on his face:

"Won't that make us rivals then?"

Kuina brought a hand to her chin as she took a thoughtful stance then she replied with ease:

"I guess it does."

Zoro offered her a hand so she could get up from the ground and said:

"Then shouldn't we get some rest so tomorrow we could train even harder, Rival?"

Kuina smiled towards Zoro's outstretched hand and grabbed it, Zoro easily pulled her up but he miscalculated his strength and she ended up crashing into him.

Zoro nursed the back of his head with one hand as the other one was holding something smooth, it felt like he was holding a small apple in his hand which he gave a small squeeze, a startled 'yeep' came from above him as he looked upwards he saw a flustered and red Kuina glaring at him.

Kuina's eyes started to redden as Zoro immediately took away his hands from her budding breasts and bowed while saying:

"I'm sorry I'm sorry it wasn't on purpose." While Zoro was basically a caveman, he still saw how men were supposed to behave around women on his travels and he knew what he did was inappropriate.

Kuina's eyes stopped reddening but she was still quite angry as she huffed and left Zoro alone on the field.

Zoro laid down on his back as he continued to watch the stars and thought about what he did:

"Well the sensation was quite soft, hmm I wonder is this why those drunk men in the bar were groping the waitress chest?"

Zoro was navigating on uncharted waters with his thoughts but as he looked at the starry sky exhaustion overtook his mind as he started to sleep on the green field.

This wasn't a particularly exhausting day for Zoro, but Zoro was a man who liked and will like sleep, so him being asleep in peculiar places was something his friends will have to learn to live with.

Kuina ran back towards her room in the dojo, she didn't even greet her father who invited her to dinner, Koshiro didn't know what to say to Kuina, she never acted like that with him before so he just decided to let her sort her emotions on her own and only give her advice if she directly came to him.

Kuina closed the door of her room and jumped in her bed while covering her face she felt a strange feeling in her stomach and her face was still red, but she calmed herself soon afterwards and decided that she felt that bad that she just left Zoro out there without giving him an explanation, it was an accident, after all, he looked genuinely surprised when he felt her breasts.

She decided to go and check up on him and she saw how he was soundly sleeping on the green grass of the field, a snot bubble popped up near his nose as he slept soundly in an awkward position. Kuina shook her head at Zoro's antics she only met the boy today but he already started to grow on her, maybe it was because he was better swordsman than her while also being younger?

Kuina got back to the dojo and got an extra quilt from the dojo's storage and she dropped it over Zoro's sleeping body, Zoro snuggled inside the quilt and Kuina decided she did her good deed for the day and left him on the field, he was a very strong guy she didn't think anyone would be able to make problems for him, the field was also situated in the middle of the city near the dojo, there would be no people who came here.

Zoro continued to snuggle in the quilt while Kuina left for her own room, Koshiro was waiting for her near her room and said:

"Young lady, you have been out for quite a bit of time, may I know why?"

Kuina told Koshiro the truth of what happened, omitting the part where Zoro touched her breast, Koshiro nodded his head and indicated that they should get Zoro a room the next morning so he won't have to sleep outside anymore.

Zoro sneezed outside, even though he had a quilt over his body it was still a bit too cold for him, but the quilt made it so he wouldn't catch a cold.

Zoro smiled to himself as he dreamt about beating the worlds strongest swordsman and being crowned as the new worlds strongest swordsman. Kuina was also in his dream, she was near him congratulating him on his win but she also seemed sad at the same time.

Zoro woke up in the morning and stretched himself dream forgot, he looked over and realized he had an unknown quilt over him. He decided he would investigate how things went after he slept after he got his breakfast first.

Zoro picked up the quilt and started walking towards the dojo, he was already smelling something tasty, it smelt like cooked meat!


	5. Stairs

Zoro walked inside the dojo as everyone was having their breakfast with the quilt in his arms, he left the quilt on the porch of the dojo and sat cross-legged on the ground as there was an empty place for him with a bowl of steaming hot buns, the dojo didn't have much food even with the support of the parents so they could eat only buns and rice, sometimes Koshiro would go hunting and they would eat meat.

Zoro wasn't a picky eater so he ate his buns and bowed afterward then he looked around for Kuina but he didn't spot her at all, it seemed Kuina didn't eat with the others. As Zoro walked outside in the backyard he could hear Kuina shouting as she did her katas with a wooden sword. She was already sweating as it seemed she had been training since earlier in the morning.

Zoro decided to train with her as he picked up a sword from the rack of swords that stood near the exit of the dojo and he started doing his own katas at a moderate pace, he started with one sword then he took another one, he slashed with them left right up down sometimes he would stay in a stance for a few minutes and afterward he would slash down with a high amount of strength, his muscles bulging a bit while doing so.

Kuina was observing his katas while she was doing her own and she tried to imitate him but Koshiro who was observing both of them came near her and whispered:

"Kuina, don't follow the path of others as your potential can't be truly fulfilled, you need to create your own path, taking inspiration from Zoro is alright but you cannot copy his techniques."

Kuina blushed awkwardly at her father's words and nodded her head then she continued her own katas while also observing Zoro but not copying him like before. Zoro was oblivious to what happened as he was thoroughly entranced in his training.

After he finished warming up with katas Zoro started his normal body training as he strapped ropes towards all parts of his body then he used those parts to lift the boulders that they were tied to.

Kuina's eyes widened and her shoulders sagged as she saw how Zoro already tripled his training compared to yesterday, and she was supposed to train like that every day?

Kuina shuddered and finished her own set of katas it was time to take Zoro's advice but Koshiro approached her again and said:

"You do not have to train as Zoro does, Zoro is a man while you are a woman, you will have different fighting styles, from what I saw, his fighting style is based on pure strength and domination of his opponent, you are different than him, even though he is more skillful than you currently it isn't sure that he will remain the same forever, while strength is important you do not have to train as hard as he does to catch up to him, you can still train like him but not at the same intensity."

Kuina nodded her head as her father explained to her how she is supposed to train to increase her flexibility and strength, it was a different type of training compared to Zoro's which was supposedly training every muscle but at a higher chance of self-injury during the training. Kuina wondered if Zoro pulled any muscles already but it seemed Zoro knew no exhaustion as he actually increased the speed he was lifting the boulders.

He was a little freak! Koshiro himself was surprised at Zoro's tenacity and training capabilities it seemed less and less surprising that Kuina lost to him. Zoro stopped training after five hours passed by and Kuina did the same, unlike Zoro who was only panting lightly Kuina was sweating intensely and she could barely stay on her feet, she did the training that her father gave her and the one Zoro did but lighter so she was pretty much exhausted.

Zoro started taking in deep breaths, in and out, in and out then he took a wooden sword and threw another one at Kuina, Kuina being as exhausted as she was barely caught the sword, it almost hitting her on the forehead, Zoro smiled at her and said:

"Maybe you would have been enlightened on swordsmanship as well if that sword hit your forehead." Kuina scoffed at Zoro's words then took a stance, Zoro's smile stood on his face as he attacked her at fast speeds, even though he didn't leave after images behind it was still pretty close.

Kuina started defending herself with her sword creating a protecting dome around her but her exhaustion coupled with the difference in skill and strength made this fight a sure win for Zoro. After a few minutes, Kuina plopped on the ground and gasped for air while Zoro stopped attacking her and nodded:

"Better than before you are improving very fast, as expected of someone with similar talent to me!" Zoro wanted Kuina to get stronger faster so he could have a challenge, which technically could increase his skill and technique even further!

Strength wasn't going to increase overnight but gradually while training, only intense fights at similar power levels would give you enlightenment. Kuina looked at Zoro with fire-filled eyes it seemed even though she was discouraged at first due to the way Zoro trained himself she quickly overcame her discouragement and her will came back faster and stronger than before!

Zoro nodded his head at those eyes he was seeing, those were the eyes he had every time he thought about becoming the worlds strongest swordsman, his dream also supra imposed with Miyamoto's dream which was practically the same increasing his will by a bit, even though Miyamoto already accomplished his dream, he was still sad and unfulfilled at the end of his life thus his will wasn't complete, now that it combined with Zoro's it created a resonance that enhanced Zoro's will by quite a bit.

Zoro offered Kuina a hand that she accepted but she couldn't actually get up due to her exhaustion, Zoro shook his head and grabbed her then put her on his back, Kuina struggled at first as she was taller than Zoro and she didn't want to stay in such an embarrassing position but she accepted it, he just left her in her room then left.

Zoro knew that at the pace he was going he couldn't make much progress due to no opponents being his match, he needed someone strong to fight against but he had no one! He didn't know if it was ok to leave the island yet he was still a bit too young as he just turned ten this year.

Koshiro looked at Zoro and chuckled to himself, he recognized the look on the youth's face it was the same look he had after he had defeated his whole island in duels in the grand line, he decided to approach Zoro and talk to him. Zoro was startled by Koshiro's approach as he couldn't sense him coming at him at all but then he remembered his 'breath' technique and he realized that Koshiro could be the one he had been looking for!

Before Koshiro could even initiate the conversation Zoro said:

"Sensei, why don't we spar for a bit?"

Koshiro shook his head at Zoro's words and responded to him:

"I'm not fighting anymore, I have left my swordsmanship path behind me and took the role of a teacher, even though I can't fight you I can teach you a bit more after you learn the 'breath' technique, I came over cause I saw you hesitating on leaving the island earlier and I want to advise you against it."

Zoro widened his eyes as he never told anyone about his thoughts, Koshiro was a really amazing person if he deduced that from his expression alone, that's why he wanted to fight him even more than before, but he decided against it as Koshiro was unwilling then he asked:

"Why shouldn't I leave the island Sensei?" Koshiro chuckled at Zoro's words and he responded with just one word:

"Kuina." Zoro was oblivious as always and asked:

"What about her?" Koshiro realized that the child was actually quite thick-headed right now and he had to explain him things in more depth to learn them, while Zoro might be a prodigy at fighting and swordsmanship he wasn't really smart concerning relationships:

"Well I don't think you have realized it but Kuina became quite attached to you recently, you would break her heart if you would leave now, she also sees you as a rival and friend, I'm not sure of what exact reaction she would have if you would leave the island already."

Zoro's eyes widened at Koshiro's words, they made quite a lot of sense, was he selfish only thinking about how to get stronger by himself without helping Kuina as well? He always thought that with just training like that and fighting other strong opponents he could get strong and he wasn't wrong, but another way to get stronger was having strong friendships!

Fighting for the one you cared about ignited a strange power withing you that increased your strength by quite a high deal. Even though Zoro didn't realize this now he would in the future.

Zoro took a pondering expression and he said quickly afterward:

"Ok I won't leave the island, but at Most I will stay till I would be eighteen years old, I will have to leave the village afterward, I already feel like I can't grow as much as I'm supposed to here..."

Koshiro nodded his head and said:

"There won't be any problem with your growth I will make sure of that." Koshiro's glasses glinted in the sun as he said that.

Zoro shuddered for no reason afterward, he looked around but didn't spot anything that could make him feel cold it was a normal summer day after all.

As Zoro and Kuina trained day in and day night, Kuina started to catch up to Zoro slowly but Zoro also improved marginally, after one year he could already shoot compressed air out of his sword and he called it flying phoenix slash cannon, for now, he could only shoot one flying slash while using three swords simultaneously and it wasn't that strong but it was still a deadly ranged ability considered he was a swordsman this was quite the high accomplishment. Even Koshiro was surprised by Zoro's ability, he was basically starting to run before walking as he still didn't learn about the 'breath' technique that he needed to do first before he knew how to do flying slashes.

Learning the 'breath' technique would also enable him to cut steel which he couldn't yet. Kuina also improved a lot now being on equal terms as the past Zoro, but she was still quite a long way to being as strong as him, even with Koshiro's help Zoro's potential just kept going on and on, it wasn't that Kuina wasn't talented enough but Zoro was just a plain monster!

Koshiro now gave the two of them permission to spar with real swords so they could gain better fighting experience it would give them the feel of fighting true life and death battles, but Koshiro would always supervise these battles so no one would get hurt.

Kuina needed to sharpen her sword but the sharpening tools were inside the cellar, she decided to go in alone to get the sharpening tools but coincidentally Zoro's swords also needed some sharpening so he followed her inside.

The stairs that led down to the cellar were quite wet and slippery so Zoro said:

"Watch out for the stairs we could easily slip and fall off and there's quite the long way down."

Kuina nodded her head at Zoro's words and she started to slowly go down the stairs, but suddenly she slipped and started falling down!

Zoro's eyes widened as he jumped down the stairs quickly falling to the cellar, he fell on his legs as he grimaced due to the impact as the distance from where he jumped and where he landed was quite big.

Fortunately, his actions were fast enough as he caught Kuina just in time if he was any late it couldn't be said what would have happened to her!

Zoro caught her easily as his strength increase even more in the one year they trained together, but Kuina also grew by a bit, especially her assets were starting to develop as she reached thirteen years. Zoro coughed awkwardly and let her down. Kuina also blushed awkwardly as well and said quickly afterward:

"Ok let's just find the sharpening tools and go out, also I have to tell father to get these stairs fixed they are way too slippery! I could have died if you didn't save me in time."

Zoro nodded his head at her words then both of them took the sharpening tools from the cellar and left without any other incidents.

After they sharpened their swords a bit to have them at full potential to simulate a deadly fight Koshiro stood between the two of them and smiled while saying:

"Ok just like the first day when you two fought, I will count from ten to zero and you can start."

Koshiro opened his mouth and started to count down, ten nine eight... zero!

Both Kuina and Zoro launched themselves at each other at high speeds while keeping their defenses up at all times, Zoro was using two swords while a third one he got from Koshiro was strapped on his back if he needed to he would unsheath the sword from his back and put in his mouth to use his newly invented three sword style, but he thought he could handle Kuina with only his two-sword style.

As they clashed sparks appeared between their swords and it could be seen Kuina was getting overpowered in the clash of swords. But suddenly...


	6. Kuina's transformation

As Kuina saw how she was overpowered by Zoro's raw strength she decided it wasn't time to clash against him anymore, she took a few steps backward and slid into a different stance from before, this stance favored speed and flexibility instead of her former stance which favored strength and accuracy.

She was going to fight differently from before, as Zoro launched himself at her she started to dodge his attacks but his speed was too fast! even though Kuina was already pretty flexible Zoro was attacking from tricky angles making her start to unable to dodge and having to block directly.

Unfortunately for her, there was a huge difference in strength between the two of them she skidded backward a few meters before she regained her balance, Zoro never gave her any peace as he suddenly put his two swords horizontally in front of him and slashed upwards afterward while saying:

"Two sword style: Two cutter Tower climbing!" Kuina was almost ready to throw the towel in when suddenly she remembered the lesson her father gave all of them that day:

"Breathing If I master this technique here..." Kuina closed her eyes as she started to breathe in and out at slower intervals than before, just when Zoro's swords were almost ready to cut her into two parts she dodged him barely a few strands of her hair being cut in the process.

Zoro eyes narrowed at her then he smiled:

"You have improved just now haven't you?" Zoro's smile continued to stay on his lips as he took the third sword that was sheathed on his back and he said before he put the sword in his mouth:

"I will use my full strength now, let's see if you can handle it!" Kuina smiled as well as she continued holding her stance trying to simulate the feeling from before.

Zoro's swords crossed as he charges directly at Kuina then said out loud:

"Three sword style: Demon Hunt!" Kuina eyes closed then opened as she suddenly ran and appeared behind Zoro as she sheathed her sword and said:

"One sword style: Three thousand strikes in one blow." The name sounded good but there weren't three thousand strikes in one blow only three, Zoro blocked all three with his three swords and staggered backward, actually, there were more than three strikes in that technique as some nicks appeared on Zoro's clothing and some strands of his green hair were cut.

Kuina didn't get unscathed out of Zoro's three sword style, however, three bifurcated slashes appeared on Kuina's clothes as they held back quite a bit both of them were uninjured, Koshiro clapped at both of them making them finally relax as they both fell back landing on their backs Koshiro was already near them as they looked up at him, he gave Kuina some new clothes while he used some ointment to treat Zoro's minor cuts.

They both sat cross-legged afterward as they rested Kuina opened her mouth to say something but Zoro beat her to it:

"You learned how to use the 'breathe' technique didn't you?" Kuina nodded her head and said:

"Well I didn't learn it, I just tapped into it into this fight, I don't know if I can do it again."

Koshiro smiled at their conversation, one you awaken your Haki once you would start to awaken it more and more till you would be able to fully consciously use it, training using correct methods would also help but Kuina naturally awakened it on her own demonstrating how talented she was.

Zoro nodded his head at Kuina's explanation then asked her with a serious look on his face:

"Could you tell me what you felt when you were in that state?" Kuina didn't feel like holding anything back from Zoro so she started to describe how she felt:

"Well it seemed like time was going way slower than before and I could see your silhouette moving in a certain direction before it moved, it was like my body was going on autopilot to counter your technique, I think this should be the 'breathing' technique right? I could also hear the sounds of everything more clearly.. the trees the people even the swords, I could hear their voices for that moment, this should be the technique right father?"

Koshiro nodded his head at Kuina's words and said:

"Yes you have grasped the fundamentals of the 'breathing' technique Kuina and I can tell you what the technique it's called now, it's called Observation Haki a skill very much needed for a master swordsman, the greatest swordsman in the world honed this technique to the peak and beyond already and it's a must learn if you want to reach the top and survive the grand line."

Zoro's eyes widened at Koshiro's words, the greatest swordsman in the world perfected this technique already? Zoro pondered a bit then asked Koshiro:

"Who's currently the greatest swordsman in the world sensei?"

Koshiro's smile stiffened at Zoro's question but decided to humor him:

"I was the student of the previous world's greatest swordsman, the new world's greatest swordsman defeated him in three moves as for his name, he is called Dracule 'Hawkeye' Mihawk he is currently over twenty years old, and I could say that I'm not his match at all."

Zoro's eyes bulged out at Koshiro's words, even after all the training he did he still couldn't feel Koshiro's limits and he told him Koshiro wasn't the worlds greatest swordsman match at all? Zoro's eyes started to fire up as he realized how far away he was from the top, which meant he didn't train hard enough up till now.

Kuina's eyes also hardened at her father's words she needed to train hard as well, even though she touched upon the basics of Observation Haki it wasn't enough even to stir the interest of the worlds greatest swordsman currently, she needed to train harder than ever to catch up to him!

Both Zoro and Kuina nodded to each other then walked away from the backyard of the dojo, they needed to intensify their training respectively and spar more often than before!

Zoro himself took to training like a mad man, even starting to go into rivers while tying boulders to his waist to make swimming harder, he even tied some tinier boulders to his arms and legs, on the first attempt he almost drowned but with sheer will alone he got out of the water before he fully went out of oxygen.

Kuina started to train almost as hard as Zoro did before while increasing her agility and flexibility training, instead of sparring two times a day now they sparred five times a day!

Every time they went to sleep at night they would groan in pain and wake up all sore in the morning as their training continued like this after six months of 'hellish training' Kuina finally started to take control of her Observation Haki, with Zoro being the prodigy he was and not wanting to be outdone he also started to try and learn Observation Haki as well.

Kuina and Zoro were in confrontation as Kuina easily parried and dodged all of Zoro's attacks, even though she barely learned how to use Observation properly the difference between someone with Observation Haki and someone without was like the difference between the heaven and the earth.

Zoro growled as all of his slashes didn't find their targets then he suddenly started spinning and threw himself at Kuina while saying:

"Three sword style: Tiger Hunt!" The attack was too sudden so Kuina couldn't dodge it and if she blocked it she would be pushed back and her tempo would be lost practically giving Zoro the victory!

She decided to counter the technique with one of her own as she started spinning like a tornado:

"One sword style: Cherry blossom tornado!" The illusions of a fierce tiger colliding with a tornado of pink cherry blossoms appeared in between them, the tiger clawed and bit at the tornado while the tornado tried to shred the tiger to pieces, in the end, both of them dissipated into nothing as Zoro and Kuina appeared where the other stood before. No injuries could be seen on their bodies but they both sweated profusely.

After six more months of training, Zoro's outfit changed from his original gi into a white shirt black pants and black boots, Kuina also now sported a black T-shirt which hugged her budding form and normal green tracksuit pants, she wore black comfortable shoes.

Zoro sheathed all three of his swords which now were on his waist, as he started to grow up he could keep the katanas on his waist now instead of his back. He was already one meter and fifty-five centimeters at eleven and a half years old, Kuina was almost fourteen and she was a bit taller than him standing at one meter and sixty-one centimeters.

They both bowed towards each other afterward and started talking:

"You did great in this spar as well Zoro." Zoro scratched his cheek and responded:

"Thank you, I think I might be close on learning Observation Haki as well, thanks to you." Kuina nodded her head at Zoro's words and responded:

"There's no problem I can't have my rival be weaker than me now can I?" She smiled cheekily at Zoro while Zoro smiled as well at her words.

They were now both pretty equal in skill while their strength was of course different. No matter how Kuina would train in the future she won't be able to exceed Zoro's strength, as a male Zoro's physique was different than hers, theoretically, if Kuina and Zoro trained with the same training techniques at the same time Zoro would have better results. That's just how nature created humans, of course, brute strength didn't fully count in fighting strength even though it helped quite a lot, good enough technique could overcome brute strength.

Zoro was a balance of both while Kuina was inclining more towards technique her agility combined with her specialization in technique increased her battle strength to be similar to Zoro's taking into account Observation Haki as well.

Zoro decided to hunt some bandits so he could fund the dojo with a bit more money, they were getting tighter and tighter in the money department these days, children trained hard but their parents didn't have enough money to keep their studies going, they lived in a normal village where agriculture was the main income of money so there were times of the year where money was very tight.

Zoro walked towards the prison of the city where the posters with bounties would be generally posted, here he looked around for a bounty high enough to feed the dojo for a long while so they wouldn't have to ask the parents of the children for money.

Zoro felt bad for the poor parents who wanted their children to learn swordsmanship and become marines or bounty hunters so they could get a steady income. Zoro decided to take on Popoko a black-skinned man with a buzzcut haircut and scars on his face, his bounty was of five hundred thousand belli.

This amount of money could feed the dojo for more than five years! When Kuina heard about Zoro's plan she wanted to follow him but Zoro told her that it wasn't necessary he felt that he was strong enough to take care of a guy with a bounty of five hundred thousand.

The location of Popoko wasn't exact, as he was a bandit that liked to move his hideout so Zoro had to go on a journey in the Skiomotsuyu county they were in to find him, Zoro got himself a backpack with rations and food and bid goodbye to Koshiro and Kuina. Next time he came back to the dojo he would be five hundred thousand bellies richer!

As Zoro left Kuina looked at his back which was getting farther and farther away from her and she didn't know what to feel about it, she looked at Koshiro but Koshiro didn't know what to tell her, he buried his feelings for her mother after she passed away and it would hurt him quite a lot if he opened up again, so he didn't want to talk about these kinds of things as they would remind him of his dead wife.

Kuina knew about how her father didn't want to talk about things pertaining to love and such so she just kept her emotions to herself.

Zoro didn't know what was inside Kuina's heart as he walked on the road towards the south of the Falling Leaf Village he now resided in, Popoko was lastly seen in the Cold Autumn village at the local bar, he could go there and ask questions about his whereabouts first, currently, this was his only lead.


	7. Cashing in a bounty and a surprise

Roronoa Zoro was a man with few talents but the ones he had were extremely peculiar compared to people with the same type of talents, his swordsmanship was his greatest talent with other few miscellaneous ones that even he didn't know he had.

As Zoro walked towards the village Popoko was lastly seen, he encountered quite a few law-breaking citizens with minor bounties of them like ten thousand bellies twenty thousand bellies, Zoro easily decapitated them with his swords and discarded their heads at the nearest marine base.

Afterward, Zoro already started to get the monicker of a demon bounty hunter, due to him decapitating his victims, Zoro took the advice from the first sheriff he encountered and decided to decapitate the bandits so it would make it easier for the people who he had to cash their bounty from.

Zoro didn't want to take in people alive as it would be more of a hassle than if they were dead, after walking through a few villages he finally reached the village Popoko was lastly sawed in and he entered the bar, the bar was full with people who were partying hard, there was a fat man with a green striped shirt and pants who had two giant lumps of meat in each of his hand as he bit large mouthfuls of them.

A red-haired man with a rather scrawny appearance who wore a white shirt and khaki pants and sandals was drinking at the bar as everyone else partied around, the man had red hair and a straw hat on his head.

Zoro's senses weren't truly unlocked yet as no one bothered to look at him he didn't feel any danger so he just entered the bar easily, he was pretty tall so no one decided to comment on him entering the bar even though he had a youthful face.

The barman was cleaning some mugs while he also served the partying men when one of them called over for more sake. Zoro approached the barman and asked him loudly:

"Do you know where this man is?" He fished out Popoko's wanted poster and placed it on the bar counter, the men who were partying ignored Zoro's words while the red-haired man continued to drink by himself.

The barman took a quick look at the poster and said:

"Popoko? that scoundrel didn't even pay his tab last time he was here if you are a bounty hunter be my guest and kill him, I think he said he left to camp in the nearby forest some kilometers away from the village, don't take my words on it he might have been lying I'm not sure." The barman shook his head as he explained but Zoro just left.

The red-haired man shook his head as he observed Zoro leaving the bar then muttered:

"Why does he remind me of that guy in his youth." He started to reminiscence about something that happened in his past as he sipped his drink from time to time.

The man's crew was oblivious to his change as they continued partying so hard the establishment almost crumbled down due to their playing around.

Zoro started to run towards the nearby forest, he already made a bit of money with the smaller bounties he got his hands on, after killing Popoko he would have enough for the dojo to not worry about food for quite a long while.

He finally reached the forest after a few minutes and started to look around, he tried to use his highly enhanced senses to find Popoko, he started to feel the breathing of the trees and the little beings inside the forest, after a while of keeping his eyes closed a smile appeared on Zoro's face as he muttered:

"Found you!"

Popoko was currently frying some wild game he caught in the forest when he was suddenly interrupted by Zoro's words:

"You are Popoko the scum? Come out here." Popoko chuckled to himself as he slipped some barbed gloves on his hands, the barbs were on the outside of the gloves along with some spikes for increased damage.

Popoko narrowed his eyes as he finally saw Zoro who finally left the tree's foliage, He never heard of youth like Zoro, three swords green hair?

Even though Zoro started to get some reputation it didn't travel through the wilderness to Popoko so he didn't know of Zoro's achievements, unfortunately for Popoko, his misinformation sealed his fate.

Zoro decided to bring out his top strength against a fellow with a bounty of five hundred thousand as he unsheathed his swords and put the third one in his mouth, Popoko decided to get the advantage and rushed at Zoro, but Zoro had a questioning look on his face, he felt Popoko was extremely slow, what was he trying to do by coming him at such a low speed?

Zoro suddenly appeared behind him as Popoko's head flew up into the air and a fountain of blood erupted from his body.

"Three sword style: Dragon decapitation." As Popoko's head flew up into the air an image of a dragon being decapitated appeared behind his flying head then disappeared just as quickly.

Zoro shook his head as he caught the head who had wide eyes and a horrified expression on its face then he muttered:

"So weak, very weak, have I already grown too much for this island?" Zoro didn't know what to say, his wish of leaving the island intensified, but there was also Kuina, she was his friend and he didn't want to hurt her feelings but he felt like he didn't grow as much as he liked to even though he fought her every day, he was starting to get accustomed to her fighting style and more fighting with her wouldn't increase his skill at all, even though he could still train himself his skill would stagnate which wasn't a good thing at all.

Zoro shook his head, it almost time for him to leave the island, even though he was still a bit too young for that he decided to leave at fifteen, he was now almost twelve so there were just three more years before he would leave.

Zoro got some cloth from Popoko's belongings and wrapped the head up, as he searched for things he didn't find anything particularly useful in his belongings, he found twenty thousand bellies and some miscellaneous things that weren't particularly useful for anyone. He left the body there and ran back towards the village where he cashed in his first bounty that exceeded one hundred thousand bellies.

The amount of money was quite high so they gave Zoro a briefcase for safekeeping. Zoro decided to get some food at the only bar in the city before he left the village to return to his.

The red-haired man was still there drinking, it hasn't even been thirty minutes since Zoro left and the barman chuckled at Zoro while saying:

"Tough luck kid?" Zoro shook his head and put some money on the counter then said:

"Give me some food, I'm starving!" The barman took the money then left to the back where the kitchen was, in there was a woman who was cooking, the barman told her:

"One plate extra size!" The woman nodded her head and started to cook the food, in no time the food was ready and the barman took it to Zoro who just started to wolf it down at high speeds, there was a chest near where he stood on the stool after he finished his food he wondered what was in the chest, it should be the belongings of the red-haired man who was drinking bottle after bottle of sake right?

Zoro opened the small chest and saw a purple fruit with patterns on it, he smelled it then pinched his nose, it smelt horrible! He closed the chest and shook his head wondering why would these guys have such a weird fruit in their treasure chest. From the looks and smells of it, it looked poisonous!

He remembered seeing some similar fruit but with a different color in the forest where he previously lived and hunted, were those fruits related somehow?

Zoro decided to ignore that thought as he looked around at everyone drinking alcohol he decided to have some as well. He slapped the bar counter and put some money on it while saying:

"Give me some rum old man!" Thebarman chuckled and filled a big glass with rum then slid it over to Zoro, Zoro drank it in one gulp and somehow there was no reaction from him for a few seconds then he said:

"Ah, where has this sweet thing been all of my life?" As of now Zoro officially became an alcoholic.

The red-haired man chuckled at Zoro then said:

"Hey kid, this is your first time drinking, isn't it? want a contest?" Zoro looked at the red-haired man who wore a straw hat then nodded his head, he didn't want to lose in anything! Zoro put some more money on the counter and said:

"The drinks for this contest will be on me!" Food and drinks weren't particularly expensive as Zoro only used up to one thousand belli up till now and the bar prices were higher than grocery stores.

The red-haired man smiled at Zoro and started to drink with even more force than before, Zoro directly took a bottle from the barman's hands and started drinking from it, Zoro's alcohol tolerance was quite high as he was neck in neck with the man who was drinking from before he even came to the village.

Considering he was practically a child Zoro's alcohol tolerance was way above average, it could almost be called legendary!

After a few hours of drinking Zoro started to lose strength, considering he was just a child, even though a super developed and monstrous one he was still a child, but fortunately for Zoro, the red-haired man finally slumped on the bar counter and started to snore loudly!

Zoro hiccuped and had a triumphant smile on his face while the man's crewmates were already down and sleeping. Zoro decided it was time to leave, as he took his briefcase he started to leave the establishment falling here and there.

Zoro made sure his swords were still on him and then left the village, even though he slipped sometimes and fallen in some potholes he started to sobber up after a few hours. Zoro started to pick up the pace and after a while, he finally arrived back at his village!

He was directly met with Kuina at the entrance of the village who hurriedly hugged him then she pushed him back and put a hand towards her nose while saying:

"You stink, what have you done out there?" Zoro didn't take baths during his journey while he also drank quite a bit at the bar so he stank like a skunk right now.

Kuina grabbed Zoro by the arm and said:

"Ok it's time for a bath for you, and that's the money in the briefcase? Let's get it to father but first, you take that bath!"

After Zoro took the bath and washed his clothes in the river near the village he met with Koshiro and presented him the money. Koshiro smiled at the amount and gave Zoro twenty thousand bellies from it. Zoro didn't want to accept it but Koshiro continued to smile and shook his head indicating that he should keep the money.

Zoro decided to stop insisting and kept the money, it would be useful for him when he needed, but he didn't particularly care as he could just hunt someone for a bounty and make some quick cash if he needed it for food.

Kuina smiled at the both of them then asked Zoro about his journey and what happened in it. Zoro decided to tell her everything then continued slowly after he told her about everything:

"Kuina I think I will leave the village three years later, I think I'm stagnating staying here, I need to see the wider world after I travel the whole east blue I will go to the grand line!"

Kuina didn't say anything at his words but she looked at her father who just nodded her head at her, Kuina smiled at Zoro then she said:

"Can I come with you?" Zoro was floored by the question but he didn't give her an immediate response.

He decided to ponder the question slowly then he opened his mouth after a few minutes of thinking.


	8. Bounty Hunter duo

Zoro opened his mouth and a few words left it:

"Sure do what you want." Kuina smiled at Zoro's words, he was a simple guy so he didn't really care if Kuina followed him or not as long as she was ok. Koshiro coughed a bit and got the attention of both of them.

Koshiro looked at them and said:

"I know you want to leave already and I have no problems with that but first let me teach you the one more important aspect of Haki before you left, you don't even have to master it, just learn how to train it."

Koshiro's hand clenched up into a fist as it became dark blue like ink he then took a wooden sword from the rack of swords that was nearby and made it the same color. Both of the children looked at him in awe and Kuina asked:

"Father, what is this technique supposed to do?" Koshiro smiled at her words then started to teach both of them slowly:

"Well you haven't encountered devil fruit users yet and you don't know what devil fruits are so let me first start with that."

Koshiro started to explain the peculiarities of devil fruits and their users to the duo, as they listened Zoro posed a question:

"So with this new form of Haki we should be able to cut those logia types?" Koshiro nodded his head and continued:

"Haki doesn't only let you cut down logia types but it can enhance your techniques and power, while as you saw can also be imbued in your swords for example or the weapon of your choice."

Koshiro reverted his Haki covered arm and sword and suddenly he clutched his chest and a little bit of blood seeped through the corners of his mouth which he quickly cleaned with his arm. Kuina ran to support him and said with a grim look on her face:

"Your illness is acting up again father?" Koshiro shook his head and said:

"Let me tell you the truth Kuina, it's not really an illness, it's an old injury I got from when I fought Mihawk, I can't use Armament Haki excessively anymore due to it as it puts a strain on my body and injury, fortunately, I can still use Observation as it doesn't put any burden on my body." He coughed a bit then started to balance himself right back.

Zoro didn't know what to say here so he just continued to listen, Koshiro continued to explain:

"Training Armament Haki is different compared to Observation, Observation can be unlocked through combat and special training while Armament is only gained through special training, well I can't really say its special, let me put it in simple terms, you have to make the will surround the part you want to be encased in Haki and then punch out at a hard surface till you can use armament, its a crude training technique but even the best in this branch of Haki trained and perfected it this way."

Koshiro mumbled to himself as he remembered how Garp trained his haki by smashing mountains, at his peak Garp was the strongest Armament Haki user now he was overtaken by Kaido the beast but the difference wasn't big.

Zoro viewed this new training as any other training, it didn't make a difference to him as it was similar on the way he trained himself, he just added one new training way to his repertoire. Kuina would have a harder time unlocking Armament but it would also be faster than normal since she already unlocked Observation even though her mastery over it was crude.

Zoro decided to unlock both of the Hakis before he left the island, Kuina would do what Zoro did as she wanted to follow him around anyway so the both of them started training their Haki the same day.

Zoro easily started to punch boulders but no amount of Haki could be felt in his punches, they were just normal gorilla strength punches, the strength was there but the intent was missing, Kuina couldn't destroy the boulders with her above-average strength, even though she could easily cut boulders of the same size easily her strength was higher than normal adults by a huge stretch but it wasn't superhuman yet.

Zoro trained his body ever since he learned how, of course even though his strength was inhuman his technique was lacking immensely due to no one teaching him any kind of swordsmanship before but the memory fragments from Miyamoto solved his biggest flaw.

As Kuina and Zoro trained day in and day night they both started to grow as time passed by, hot summers cold winters calm springs and the in-between autumn. It's been exactly three years since Koshiro taught them about Armament Haki, Zoro clenched his hands as his arms muscles bulged up and a dark hue started to appear on them finally they turned dark blue. Kuina looked at him from the porch of the dojo and clapped her hands at him:

"Your success rate seems to be around forty percent, some more training and you can get to one hundred percent!" Zoro smiled but then his hold on Haki escaped and his arms turned back to normal, he now grew even more and stood at one meter and seventy-two centimeters while Kuina grew up to one meter and sixty-three centimeters.

Kuina also learned armament in these three years but she had only a fifteen percent chance of success on using it, Zoro learned and mastered Armament way faster than her, he also unlocked Observation and he was only a tad behind her in his mastery of it, it seemed Zoro was talented in both Hakis while Kuina leaned more towards Observation.

Koshiro was watching them interact with a smile on his face, Zoro was fifteen now and Kuina was seventeen, Koshiro thought that they were both ready to take the east blue by storm, there were no people in east blue who could match them now, while they wouldn't have a hard time in paradise it wouldn't be easy either, but with their half baked Haki skills, he guessed they could barely survive in the new world.

Kuina walked towards Zoro and gave him a big hug that Zoro replicated awkwardly, he still felt strange around her now, especially since her boobs were now quite big, He still could feel her boobs pressing against his chest even though they stopped hugging.

Zoro scratched the back of his head then shook it, his three swords were strapped at his waist while Kuina's Wado Ichimonji was strapped at her waist as well. Zoro bowed towards Koshiro then said:

"Sensei, it seems it's my time to leave." Kuina bowed as well and said:

"I guess it's time to say goodbye for now father." Some tears started to seep out from the corner of her eyes but she quickly cleaned them with the corners of her shirt cuffs. Zoro wore the same outfit now a bit larger due to the increase in height and muscle mass, while Kuina now wore a simple white shirt blue jeans and black short combat boots. Her boobs were in full view even though she wore a bra as they grew quite a bit combined with her daily exercise and with the money from the bounty they and the other students could eat nutritious and good food.

Koshiro smile never left his face, he seemed a bit older than before as gray streaks started to appear in his hair but his face still had the same youth as before.

Zoro took a rucksack with him where he had some of his belongings such as change of clothes, some bellies he saved and other necessities, Kuina took a similar rucksack with her things and they were ready to leave the island, while the island was quite big it still had limits and they quickly found them.

Zoro bought a boat big enough to house both of them with his savings and he still had some money left behind, it would be quite awkward for him to live with Kuina on a relatively tiny boat like this but he had to make do, Zoro's first objective would be to get a bigger boat but for that, he would need money.

What was the fastest way to make money? Cash in bounties!

Zoro forgot to inquire how much a big enough boat would cost so he was in the dark about how much he needed to make.

Kuina also found it a bit awkward to live so closely with Zoro for long periods of time at sea but she didn't dislike it when Zoro came up with the plan of buying a bigger boat she accepted it quickly, having a bigger boat would make things less awkward between them.

Zoro also told her his plan of hunting bounties to get the money and she agreed with it as well, it wasn't really a plan like at all, Zoro just said that they should hunt wanted people for cash so they could get a bigger boat and she just agreed.

Zoro smiled to himself as he felt that he made great plans already, he took some food from the rucksack and chewed on it, it was a red shiny apple, they had quite a lot of fruits and they even took a barrel of it with them, scurvy was the biggest problem at sea and even though Zoro wasn't a bookworm he still learned some basics about what he needed to do at sea.

However, he had no talents in other regards such as navigating or cooking so they could only eat simple foods, Kuina could relatively navigate well so there was no problem here in east blue but they would need someone with talent when they would go to the grand line.

Zoro yawned as their boat took them along the sea, seagulls that looked like they were snickering at them passed them from above and some even tried to steal Zoro's half-eaten apple but suddenly Zoro sheathed and unsheathed his sword and the seagull became fish food.

Kuina looked at the seagulls with pity, who told them they could steal from Zoro? The other seagulls who watched their comrade die in vain started to sweat intensely then they flew away from the boat at extreme speeds leaving afterimages behind. Zoro scratched his head as he looked at the seagulls flying away, did he frighten them that badly?

Kuina opened a map that she got from her rucksack and said:

"The nearest island from ours is called Roaming Boar island and it has currently a cumulative bounty of three hundred thousand bellies if we can catch all of the criminals." Zoro already gave her some bounty posters he took with him before he left, he practically took all of the bounty posters he could and put them in the boat, some of them had the last seen location of the individuals on them and a few tens of them lived on Roaming Boar island.

Zoro nodded his head at her then jumped in the water, Kuina looked at Zoro with a questioning look on her face but when he started to push the boat at high speeds she realized what he wanted to do.

Kuina started to instruct Zoro in which direction he needed to push the boat to reach Roaming Boar island and it only took them five hours of navigating to get to the island.

Zoro anchored the boat at the pier while Kuina looked around, the harbor city wasn't very big but not small either, she tried to identify if any of their targets were at the harbor but tough luck as none of them were currently docking or leaving.

Zoro started to shake like a cat would after he finished tying the boat, he needed to get himself dry.

Kuina was only a few meters away from her so some saltwater landed on her, she glared at Zoro while Zoro smiled sheepishly and said:

"I'll make sure I won't do it again when you are around."

Kuina nodded her head at his assessment, it was time for them to begin their jobs as the bounty hunter duo!

Unknowingly to them, an orange-haired thief was also on the same island trying to amass money for her own reasons, would their fates intersect earlier or not at all due to the changes that happened to Zoro?

Kuina and Zoro walked away from the pier towards the local bar, where they could get some information on all the wanted men, it would be a long day before they could catch all of them.


	9. Bounty Hunter duo debut

As the duo entered the bar they were met with the intimidating gazes of the patrons, well the patrons thought they were intimidating, Zoro smiled at their gazes and clicked one of his katanas while smiling evilly, Kuina decided to ignore the gazes that were eyeing them both and walked directly to the barman.

A fat bald man who wore an apron and a dirty shirt was behind the bar counter cleaning a mug, Kuina approached the bar counter and dropped a stack of bounties on the counter, the bald barman didn't even look from his mug as he said:

"Buy something first before asking for information." Zoro chuckled and put a two hundred belli bill on the counter while saying:

"Ale for all of that." The barman smiled then filled two mugs with cheap ale and slid them to Kuina and Zoro, Zoro drank the ale in a few seconds while Kuina pushed it away, Zoro took the second mug and drank it considering Kuina didn't want any he decided to drink it all by himself.

Kuina then pushed the bounties forward to the man, he started to look through them and he looked at the duo with a strange look on his face then said:

"You want information on all of them?" Zoro nodded his head before Kuina could say anything and he responded to the barman:

"Of course, in my opinion, there are too few wanted people on this island." A chuckle rang out in the bar as a man got up from the stool he was on, he had a scar running over his face vertically as he dragged a giant cleaver towards Zoro he said in a low voice:

"Oh, you think you are a hotshot aren't you?" But before the man could say anything else Zoro unsheathed his sword then sheathed it right back on, a slash appeared on the man's neck as his body slid forward and hit the bar floor.

People looked at Zoro like they saw the devil, they weren't even sure how he decapitated that man!

Someone even shouted:

"He killed boss Billy! he had a bounty of one hundred thousand!" Kuina checked the bounty posters and saw that Billy was the biggest fish they could catch on this island, he was really easy to find, the barman started stuttering and shaking but Zoro's gaze that landed on him made his heart almost stop, Zoro then decided to ask:

"So about the other wanted men, do you have any information?" The barman spilled everything he knew, luckily for the both of them even though they weren't at the bar most of the pirates and bandits were resupplying so they could catch all of them at once. Kuina took Billy's head as proof then left the bar with Zoro in tow.

Zoro played with his swords as Kuina took the lead walking towards the convenience stores where the pirates were supposed to be resupplying, immediately they found out quite a few of wanted men that they easily dispatched. Kuina crossed the wanted posters which they caught with an X then moved on as they continued to catch wanted men.

After a few hours, they caught everyone that went to resupply, unfortunately, some didn't resupply today so they couldn't catch them as they were at sea after they threw all of them at the marine base they made away with four hundred and sixty-five thousand bellies, the marines told them they could also take some things from the pirates, for instance, their boats if they wanted to, they wouldn't stop them, most of them would be repossessed by the government but the marines from the base realized that the duo was very strong and they wanted to curry favor with them.

Immediately their ship problem was solved, and they had some money to boot too! as they looked at the ships that were docked at the pier Zoro shook his head as he saw that even though most of them were pretty big he didn't like how they looked, there weren't many ships as not every wanted man had a ship so he had to make do with what he could get his hands on.

a marine lieutenant was with them as he would register the new ship that Zoro and Kuina would select thus not confusing them with pirates if other marines would see the ship, the marines from the base would also help them by giving them some clean sails that wouldn't depict a skull and crossed bones.

Zoro finally decided on a medium-sized ship that was colored dark green, it's figurehead was a fat mermaid. With the help of the marines, the change of sails was done immediately, down inside the ship where treasures were kept an orange-haired girl which looked to be fourteen years old was loading huge sacks of treasure then put them over her shoulder ready to run away.

Zoro was looking at the ship more closely when he suddenly felt a small being on the ship with his Observation Haki, Kuina smiled towards him as she felt it as well, they decided to wait for the unknown individual to make himself visible as there was no way he or she could leave the ship without getting on the deck first.

After a few minutes, the orange-haired girl who wore a green skirt, sandals and a white sleeveless  
shirt with two huge sacks of gold and treasures over her shoulder, when she saw both Zoro and Kuina she wanted to make a run for it and jump on the dock but Zoro suddenly appeared in front of her.

The woman let out a loud 'yiiip' but she couldn't do anything against Zoro, she tried to hit him between the legs with a kick but Zoro easily dodged and said:

"Quite vicious aren't you." Nami knew she was done for the man was extremely fast but she wouldn't go down without a fight! She let the sacks of treasures on the deck and was ready to throw herself at him but Zoro shook his head and then said:

"We aren't pirates, we just took this ship after we caught the crew, we are bounty hunters." Kuina walked over and said:

"That's right, don't be scared we don't want to hurt you." Kuina smiled towards Nami and asked afterward:

"Why did you steal all this money from the pirates, it's quite risky and you are all alone, you also look like you aren't that old." Nami looked at the two of them but decided against telling them her life story and she just said:

"I need this money for a personal reason, it has to do with my village please don't pry into it." Zoro shook his head and decided not to interfere but Kuina wasn't the same as him:

"Are you sure you are ok? do you need some help?" Nami's gaze softened, in her mind as long as someone wasn't a pirate there was a chance he could be a good person but then she shook her head, she didn't want to doom two strangers, Aarlong was a beast with a bounty of twenty million, she didn't think two unknown bounty hunters could defeat him.

Since Nami insisted that she didn't need any help Kuina decided to let her go but before she left the ship Kuina said:

"My name's Kuina and this guy is called Zoro, what's yours?"

Nami smiled at the two of them and said:

"Name's Nami, see ya!" She then jumped to a nearby small boat when suddenly a gust of wind started to push its sails at a fast speed as she quickly undid the knot that was tied to the dock.

Zoro watched as the boat speed off into the horizon then looked at Kuina and said:

"Ok now that this episode is over what should we do?"

Kuina took a pondering look on her face then said:

"Hmm maybe, before we go to the grand line let's see the whole east blue, it shouldn't take us much time we should also cash in as many bounties as we can as extra money is never bad, we have a ship already but I don't think this one would be good enough to get us through the grand line."

Kuina's words made sense to Zoro so he decided to not question anything she said, Kuina took her things and choose a free room in the ship and Zoro decided to do the same thing after their things were settled in their rooms Kuina came out of her room with a map and shouted to Zoro:

"Zoro come out! we have to navigate for a while to get to the next island the cumulative bounty of the island should be at least at one million, the nice marine lieutenant even gave us updated wanted posters, let's go!"

Zoro walked outside his room and with Kuina's instructions set the sails in a favorable direction then started to navigate the ship towards the next island. After a few tens of minutes of navigating Kuina told Zoro:

"Ok this is enough if nothing unexpected happens we will get to the island in a few days, also you don't have to hold rudder anymore. Zoro sighed as he let go of the rudder, their destination was already set so all he had to do was let the wind do its job.

Zoro walked slowly away from the rudder then asked Kuina:

"What do you want to do now?"

Kuina put a finger on her chin and she started thinking then she said:

"Well I guess we can just train a bit then eat something afterward, let's first start with our normal training routine, as we already unlocked armament now we only have to focus to increase its success rate, as for Observation we can only try to hone it by continuously using it just like my father said."

Zoro started to use Observation but after a few tens of minutes beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, it was hard for him to keep Observation up all of the time, he was very far away before he could use Observation all the time unconsciously, as for armament, he still had only a forty percent chance of activating it and any distractions would turn it off immediately.

Kuina could keep Observation up for more time but her progress in armament was quite slow after they trained their haki for half a day they ate some rations they got for the journey, Zoro shook his head at the taste and said:

"This food isn't as good and nutritious as someone's cooking, the food can keep us alive but it doesn't help us in regards of getting stronger." Zoro could feel that the better food they got after he came with the bounty money helped him increase his strength better than what he ate before, better food increased the speed of gaining strength but it wasn't by much, but any kind of help was needed for his dream so Zoro decided he needed a cook on his ship.

Kuina nodded her head as well, cooked food was needed for a balanced diet, unfortunately, both of them couldn't cook at all, all their talent went into swordsmanship and haki, everything else was mediocre or extremely bad. Of course, they could roast some meat or fry some eggs but they couldn't make any good dishes they also had no cookbooks.

Zoro now realized that he couldn't go through the grand line by himself he lacked certain things that were needed to keep yourself alive at sea, he either needed to learn them or get someone who was talented in them to join him on his journey of becoming the greatest swordsman in the world.

The first people he needed to get was a navigator and a cook, he didn't even know where to look for them, Kuina didn't know either, she didn't have any knowledge of east blue besides what the map showed her.

Zoro shook his head if he met any good cooks or navigators during his whole journey in the east blue he would try to ask them if they wanted to join him.


	10. Johnny and Yosaku

Kuina and Zoro were at sea as they were navigating towards the next island, Zoro's stomach rumbled then he entered the kitchen to grab a bite of food after he stuffed himself he started to train using some giant weights manufactured from the ship's anchor.

Kuina wasn't idle herself as she sat cross-legged on the deck training her Observation Haki, she tried to extend the range of her Observation Haki and how much time she could keep it up before she would get exhausted mentally.

Zoro was doing this combined with the weights training, he also tried to activate armament every time his muscles contracted, he was a multitasking guy when it came to training, he wanted to train every part of his fighting arsenal at the same time he was also pretty ingenious with the way he trained to combine all the training techniques into one.

Kuina was Observing Zoro with her haki when suddenly two little voices could be heard in her mind, they screamed in fear and agony a few kilometers away from the ship on a giant rock in the middle of the sea.

Kuina got up from her cross-legged position and used the rudder to get to the two voices she heard, one man was clutching the other man's arm as he was unconscious, he was crying as he didn't know what happened to him, he just collapsed one day!

Kuina got near the railing of the ship and shouted at the duo:

"Hey, are you guys ok?" The tanned man with a tattoo on his head and sunglasses who wore a blue shirt and white trousers and sandals immediately let the other man down and looked at Kuina with tears in his eyes:

"Big sis please help us, my friend collapsed and I don't know what's wrong with him!" There was a tiny boat anchored to the rock and with the help of Zoro, they brought the duo on the ship.

After a bit of inspection from Kuina she told Zoro:

"Go get some limes from the kitchen and make juice from them, feed it to this guy, it seems he has scurvy." The man in question lied on the deck of the ship, blood sipped out of the corners of his mouth and some gaps could be seen where some of his teeth were supposed to be, he wore a red headgear a green coat with triangles on it and some baggy blue pants, like his friend he also wore sandals.

Zoro grunted and said:

"Why should we even help them?" Kuina shook her head at Zoro's question then said:

"We can't help everyone but we shouldn't ignore someone pleas as bounty hunters, we aren't marines but we aren't pirates either if it's in our power we should help with what we can." Zoro scratched the back of his head he didn't really understand Kuina's ideology but decided to not argue with her, it was just some lemons he would be giving away.

Zoro entered the kitchen and made some lemon juice out of a bunch of lemons then he got near the downed man and fed him the juice, the man suddenly got up from the deck and started jumping around while saying:

"Johnny I got better!" Then he collapsed like a sack of potatoes as he spurted blood out of his mouth.

Kuina shook her head at the man's antics, it was obvious he wasn't very smart, he told the now identified Johnny:

"He should rest, we have some free rooms on the ship, if you want to you can stay here also do you guys know how to cook or navigate?" Johnny started to tear up at Kuina's words then he said:

"Big sis we are just beginner bounty hunters, we can navigate only basically and we don't even know as many things as you, as for cooking we only ate the food we could buy from cashing in bounties.."

Kuina shook her head at the man's words, it seemed they weren't very useful for the duo, Zoro looked at the both of them with a questioning look on his face, were they really so dumb?

Johnny ignored Zoro's expression then he bowed towards him:

"Thanks for giving us the lemons big brother, may we know the name's of our saviors, As you heard I'm Johnny and the guy that's lying on the deck is called Yosaku."

Zoro opened his mouth to respond to Johnny:

"I'm Roronoa Zoro." Kuina chimed in as well and said:

"I'm Kuina!" Johnny bowed again towards the both of them then helped Yosaku up into one of the free rooms of the ship where Kuina guided them, Zoro got back to training everything he knew.

As Johnny let Yosaku rest on the hammock he looked at Kuina and asked:

"So what are the two of you doing at sea?"

Kuina smiled towards Johnny's question then said:

"Well just like the two of you we are bounty hunters, a few days ago we finished our first official job and we got some cash and this ship." Johnny's eyes widened behind his sunglasses as he stammered:

"So so so that that means the two of you are really strong?" Kuina chuckled at Johnny's words then said:

"Just look outside at Zoro and you should know how strong we are, let Yosaku rest here nothing will happen to him."

Johnny nodded his head while gulping, he could barely cash in bounties of ten thousand bellies and these guys looked like big shots! When Johnny saw how Zoro trained with the enormous anchor weights and how his arms would sometimes turn dark he didn't know what to say, sometimes the white anchor would turn dark blue as well.

Johnny gulped as he looked at Zoro then said:

"What is big bro Zoro doing?" Kuina smiled at him then said:

"He is training a special technique my father taught to us, he was a strong swordsman from the grand line." Kuina seemed to recall some memories from when she was even younger, how her father kept her in his arms as he ran away from the grand line, she also remembered a second silhouette resembling her crying out loud. Kuina shook her head, the memories were very old, she didn't truly remember what happened back then, she only had this flashback now because of Johnny's words.

Zoro didn't pry into Kuina's or Koshiro's past as he didn't care, Johnny was also sensible enough to not ask anymore as he saw Kuina's expression which started to take a furrow.

Johnny immediately interjected so he wouldn't make one of his saviors mad:

"Even though we can't navigate or cook we know of people who can! We also have updated information on the latest bounties, well I know of a great place with cooks but I'm not sure if they have good navigators as well."

Kuina nodded her head at Johnny's words when a gasp was suddenly heard from the inside of the ship, it seemed Yosaku woke up while Kuina and Johnny were talking, Johnny excused himself then entered the inside of the ship to check up on Yosaku.

Kuina approached Zoro and motioned at him with her hand, Zoro stopped his training as sweat trickled down his forehead and his shirtless chest, Kuina blushed a bit when she saw Zoro like that but the blush disappeared immediately before Zoro could see it. He wouldn't have understood why she blushed anyway, maybe he would have thought she was getting sick.

Kuina cleared her throat to not sound awkward then said:

"These guys we saved have some information about cooks since we need one anyways we should follow their information, it would be very helpful for us, a good cook would keep us well fed and we could even improve our bodies a bit faster." Zoro smiled at Kuina's words, he knew that food was extremely important to the development of the body so he agreed with her wholeheartedly.

Johnny and Yosaku both left the inside of the ship in high spirits as they high fived each other, Yosaku bowed towards the both of them as well and said in a solemn tone of voice:

"Thanks for helping me big brother and sister, I owe you my life!" Zoro motioned that he didn't care with his hand while Kuina just smiled at him and said:

"It's ok since we had the power to save you we saved you, isn't that what a good person does?"

Yosaku smiled at her words then said:

"I heard from Johnny that you need a cook and navigator, I and my bro just know the greatest place where you can find cooks that can also fight!"

"It's called the floating sea restaurant Baratie and it was opened a few months ago and it already has quite the notorious reputation, most of the chefs are ex pirates and they treat costumers kind of unwell but their food is very good!"

Zoro nodded his head at Yosaku's explanation, a new restaurant opened by ex pirates sounded pretty legit to him, unfortunately for both Zoro and Kuina the restaurant was quite far away from their location, they also needed to stock up some more on supplies so they couldn't redirect the ship towards Baraties direction.

All they could do was keep the same course and go to the nearest island, hunt down some bounties then resupply, a pretty solid plan in Zoro's opinion.

It was the best course of action so Kuina agreed with it wholeheartedly, Yosaku gave Johnny a hit in the stomach with his elbow as he whispered to him:

"Johnny you think we should join these guys? They seem pretty strong and we could help them with the miscellaneous tasks around the ship, maybe they could even train us!" Johnny's sunglasses started glinting as a ray of sunshine landed on them, He grabbed Yosaku by the shoulders and said in a low tone of voice:

"You are a genius Yosaku! All we have to do is convince them!" Zoro and Kuina looked at each other as they heard their conversation then shook their heads, they didn't mind the extra company but training them would be another thing, the duo looked like simple people Kuina was certain of that if they did well when they would go bounty hunting Kuina would be thinking about training them.

Zoro didn't care much about such things, if they wanted training he would give them training, he looked towards the duo who was still chatting in low voices when Kuina grabbed him by the shoulder and shook her head, she knew Zoro's extreme training ways and the duo didn't look ready to endure them, she told him in a low tone of voice:

"If you want to train them firstly wait for me to finish with them first." Kuina's training techniques were gentler but she still wasn't sure of the duo's affinity towards the sword, only after they fought under her gaze would she know how to train them, it was something Koshiro instructed her about during their own training sessions, Koshiro's image appeared in Kuina's mind as she remembered:

"Kuina I will teach you how to identify the talent of someone, it could be useful if you would find future friends, it isn't easy to travel the grand line with only two people, talents are needed no matter how mediocre as long as they are talents they should be able to help you and Zoro."

The investigating would have to wait till they got to the island, Kuina wouldn't be able to infer anything if they sparred with Zoro, their levels were too far apart, Johnny and Yosaku looked a bit stronger than the average marine grunt as for their swordsmanship techniques they were a mystery for now.

In a few days of traveling, Johnny and Yosaku tried to butter up Zoro and Kuina by doing all of the chores of the ship while both of them trained. Zoro liked how he didn't have anything to do so he started to take a liking to the duo.

They even brought them food without them needing to ask as if they knew when they were hungry!

In these days of sailing, they got nearer and nearer to the island and they could already see it from a distance.

Yosaku shouted:

"Land hay-ho!" Zoro stopped his training as he looked at the island that was getting bigger and bigger in his view.

This was one of the pit stops they had to take before they could visit the Baratie, they would go in and out, take some bounties and resupply, an easy plan with an easy execution.


	11. Some more bounties and going to Baratie

Zoro watched as they got nearer and nearer towards the island then he said:

"You guys can dock the ship right?" Johnny and Yosaku nodded their heads like chicks pecking rice wanting to impress their big brother Zoro, Zoro smiled at the two of them and said:

"Ok then I'll go ahead and resupply with Kuina we will meet later at the local bar and we will start bounty hunting afterward ok?"

Johnny and Yosaku continued to nod their heads, Kuina chuckled at their antics, even though the duo was pretty weak they were pretty funny, Zoro leaped away from the ship and Kuina followed him as they were already near the docks of the island.

Johnny and Yosaku lowered the anchor and lowered the sails as well they high-fived each other then they jumped down from the ship as well, Zoro and Kuina were already buying the required food items and other things needed for living at sea. After a few minutes of shopping, they walked towards the town's bar and met with Johnny and Yosaku who were just coming towards the bar.

Zoro and Kuina gave them the supplies and told them to go back to the ship and return, the duo didn't say anything and executed the orders, Zoro and Kuina entered in the bar but the patrons started to whistle and do indecent gestures towards Kuina, a glare from Zoro and his swords unsheathing stopped every patron's gesture and whistling. After killing quite many people Zoro gained a peculiar aura around him that scared normal people, however, some dumb people couldn't even sense that in this bar.

A giant hulking man with a tattoo on his forehead and an eyepatch who wore a black tank top green boots and white shorts approached Kuina and said in a lecherous tone of voice:

"Why don't you ditch this green-haired loser and come entertain me and the boys?" He pointed towards the table where he stood before and there were some other pirates like him there salivating as they ogled Kuina's body, their eyes were especially looking at her breasts.

Zoro was ready to unsheath his swords and kill all of these fools but Kuina put a hand over his and said:

"These guys have a bounty of two hundred thousand in total, let me deal with them, after all, they insulted me personally!" Zoro smiled at Kuina then nodded his head, he walked towards the barman and said:

"One bottle of ale." Then he slapped the counter with bellies, the slap was so hard that the counter cracked in the middle, the barman was shaking like a leaf at Zoro's strength, he smiled awkwardly at him and gave him one of his best ale bottles.

The eye-patched pirate lone eye bulged out as he saw Zoro's strength but before he could say anything Kuina was already sheathing her sword:

"One sword style: Sudden death." The pirate looked at her like one would look at a fool then said:

"What are you mumbling about you crazy bitch?" But before he could continue his train of thought he saw himself fall over for no reason, as he looked around the bar with his eyes he could see people who watched him with terrified eyes before he could ask what was their problem his thoughts started to grow foggy as he died. Kuina patted her hands as she looked at her handy work, killed before he knew he got killed!

His crewmates wanted to run away from this devil woman that they encountered but before they could Zoro unsheathed one sword, one hand drinking ale while the other pointed at the running pirates, a horizontal slash made from Zoro shoot out a flying blade which cut all the remaining pirates in two.

The regular patrons started to vomit at the sight while the barman's shaking aggravated, he thought to himself:

"He didn't even slash them, how he could cut them in two from a distance?"

Zoro smirked at the barman which made him faint, as Zoro's smirk looked like a devil's smile to him.

The regular people started to run away from the bar as Johnny and Yosaku tried to enter it, they were almost stampeded by the crowd, fortunately, they dodged in time. When Johnny and Yosaku entered the bar their eyes widened as they saw the mess, As Johnny looked at the faces of the dead pirates who laid on the floor he got some folded wanted posters from his pants pockets and he said out loud:

"Billy one-eyed Joe, bounty one hundred thousand, Ruffer the sea dog bounty fifty thousand, Bildop the snail bounty fifty thousand." They already made two hundred thousand bellies while they were delivering the goods back to the ship! What a frightening efficiency!

Kuina smiled at the duo and waved towards them, Johnny and Yosaku made sure to not step on the entrails of the pirates so they wouldn't get their footwear dirty, Zoro finished his ale then said:

"Go cash in the bounties for these people, you keep fifty thousand, come back here we will go bounty hunting together so we can train you a bit." Johnny and Yosaku wanted to train already but since they would get fifty thousand bellies only for delivering the heads of the wanted people they decided to keep silent.

Both of them had their swords which they used to cut off the head of the other two wanted pirates and they also took Joe's head, afterward they wrapped it in some cloth that was covering the tables of the bar.

It didn't take them much to cash in the bounties and come back, Zoro was already at his third ale bottle while Kuina also tried one glass of ale herself, she didn't understand why Zoro loved alcohol so much, it tasted sweet but it also burned your throat, she didn't like the sensation so she stopped after one glass.

Zoro walked away from the half-destroyed bar counter and said:

"Let's go find some other wanted pirates or bandits, time for your training." Johnny and Yosaku beamed like they saw Santa Claus on the day of Christmas, they could finally get some training from the superhuman swordsman duo!

Zoro and Kuina left the bar followed by Johnny and Yosaku, of course, finding bandits and pirates is easier said than done, sometimes you would find them the moment you left your residence other times you wouldn't see a pirate in years. Fortunately for Johnny and Yosaku, they found a small-time gang with bounties ranging from ten thousand to twenty-five thousand harassing the villagers of the town they were in.

Johnny and Yosaku immediately went in running towards the bandits who were trying to abuse and steal from the poor villagers, Johnny's and Yosaku's technique wasn't that great and their strength was lacking but they were above the normal human power, with some luck they beat the bounty holders but afterward, they fell in exhaustion which led them to be surrounded by the grunts.

Zoro snorted and all of the grunts became headless, Johnny and Yosaku widened their eyes, this was the first time they saw Zoro in action and they couldn't be sure what they saw, Zoro's slashing speed was too fast for their untrained eyes, one second Zoro snorted the other second headless bodies were kneeling around them.

Zoro shook his head at the duo's lack of stamina and said:

"You are lacking in everything even though you are better than normal, I guess we will first have to begin with stamina training." Kuina nodded her head and said:

"After we finish with the bounty hunting on this island I will create a special training routine for the two of you Ok?"

The exhausted duo nodded and smiled towards the both of them, afterward they helped each other up and decided to follow Zoro and Kuina and see how they would handle the other wanted criminals.

After a few hours of scurrying the whole island which wasn't that big, they caught almost all the present pirates and bandits and handed them in for their bounties, fortunately, the marine base had enough money to pay them off, the marine who gave them the bounties gasped as he said:

"It's you Roronoa Zoro and Kuina the new upcoming bounty hunter stars!" It seemed news traveled fast among marines, Zoro and Kuina only cashed in quite high bounties, well high for east blue standards so they were already pretty popular among east blue marine folk.

The marine bowed to the two of them and said:

"It's good to have people like you working with us!" Then he saluted them after they left, Johnny and Yosaku were impressed by the respect Zoro and Kuina got from that marine and promised to themselves that they would one hundred percent take their training seriously so they could become great swordsmen like them.

Zoro, Kuina, Johnny, and Yosaku embarked their ship and left the same day they arrived, their next destination was Baratie the floating restaurant!

As always Johnny and Yosaku did the chores afterward Kuina called them over and said:

"Your physical constitutions are quite weak before I can teach you any techniques we will have to train your bodies a bit, first you will have to do one thousand push-ups sit-ups, squats, and some variations push-ups, some weight lifting, and some swimming." Johnny and Yosaku started to sweat at Kuina's words if her training was already this hard what training did Zoro have in mind for them?

They didn't complain about her training even though it was inhuman and started to do it, in the first days they could barely reach two hundred push-ups and sit-ups while they couldn't even lift weights and swim. Zoro shook his head as he lifted two anchors over his head as he did squats, from where he got those huge anchors no one knows.

After he felt that he finished his warmup he tied the anchors to his body and jumped behind the ship, then he put his hands on the ships back and started swimming, the speed of Zoro legs in the water created mini vortexes as the ship sailed at high speed, Kuina took control of the rudder so they wouldn't deviate off course.

The time they would need to get to Baraties shortened immensely with Zoro's new training technique, after a few hours of swimming Zoro untied the anchors from him and jumped back on the ship, Johnny and Yosaku were sweating intensely and they were ready to give up for today but when they saw how Zoro was still ok after how much he swam with giant anchors tied to him to boot!

They decided to push beyond their limits and try to finish the push-ups sit-ups and squats quota for today at least.

After another few days, a giant fish could be seen over the horizon, it was blue and it had orange lips, it wasn't a ship it was a ship!

Some scared people could be seen running to their ships and sailing away from the restaurant, Zoro looked at the restaurant then asked Johnny and Yosaku who were now lifting weights after they finished their other training:

"Is this the supposed floating restaurant?" Johnny and Yosaku said in unison:

"I think this is the one big brother Zoro, we haven't seen it so we can't be sure one hundred percent but this was the location we were told about."

Zoro nodded his head at them then waited for a few minutes as their ship finally neared the restaurant, Johnny and Yosaku stopped their training with permission from Kuina and they all jumped from the ship's deck to the restaurants.

With their newfound strength, Johnny and Yosaku almost made a hole through the restaurant's deck but fortunately, Kuina caught them before it could happen.

They entered and took a seat as they looked around the restaurant, it was quite empty and there were no waiters to take their orders, Zoro shook his head and said:

"Are you sure the restaurant is open, this looks like a ghost restaurant." Suddenly out of nowhere a blonde-haired man who wore a dark suit with a blue undershirt and a black-tie appeared, he was smoking a cigarette, the right part of his face was covered by his hair while the left part was shown, the man had some very curly eyebrows.

He looked down without observing Kuina and said:

"Ok, what do you want you, shitty customers." He looked up to see the customers but then his eyes transformed in hearts as he started to twirl around the restaurant like a tornado:

"OH MY GOD, WHAT A BEAUTY!" Zoro snorted at the man's behavior and said:

"I don't like this restaurant already maybe we should go." Kuina giggled at Zoro attitude and said:

"It's ok Zoro," Zoro grunted at Kuina's words then didn't say anything else, Sanji approached Kuina and kneeled near her, here Kuina started to feel a bit weirded out by his behavior he was ready to kiss her hand but out of nowhere a sword appeared near his neck and Zoro's voice could be heard:

"Shitty curly eyebrowed cook, don't you think you are a bit too familiar with my friend?" Sanji's eyes widened as he didn't feel the sword being unsheathed nor approaching his neck at all, who was this guy?

Sanji cleared his throat and said:

"So what would you want today?" Zoro was ready to cut the man into pieces but Kuina put a hand over Zoro's shoulder and shook her head, Zoro huffed and resheathed his sword, the man was a civilian if Zoro killed him they could become wanted criminals, Kuina didn't want that so she advised Zoro that it wasn't a good action course with her gestures.

Sanji narrowed his eyes at their interactions and a lightbulb suddenly lighted up in his brain, it seemed this woman was already taken...

After calming Zoro down Kuina started the food order:

"Give us your best dishes, money isn't a problem." Sanji couldn't control himself as he started twirling around again:

"Beautiful and rich with the soul of an angel ah..." Sanji disappeared inside the kitchen as his words resounded in the dining hall of the ship, Zoro looked at Kuina then said:

"This guy is pretty annoying and it seems he is the only one here, I don't think we can get a cook from here." Kuina shook her head as she said:

"He is pretty lecherous but if his food is good we can try to recruit him, you are stronger than him and it doesn't look like he would do anything problematic on his own, he also looks pretty young, by my observation haki estimates he is also quite strong, would make a good crewmate, you should be able to sense that there are very few people in the restaurant as well, there's one other relatively large presence in here but he didn't make himself visible up till now while we probed around, that means he doesn't want to meet us." Zoro acknowledged Kuina's words with a nod, she was right.

After a few more minutes of waiting the blonde chef came out of the kitchen with a few trays and plates of food, he bowed towards Kuina and gave the stink eye to Johnny and Yosaku, he, however, didn't dare to look at Zoro.

Zoro took some of the utensils that the man brought with him and started to dig into the food, even though he wouldn't say this out loud the food was very good, the best food he ate since he was born, Kuina eyes started to sparkle as she ate the food, Johnny and Yosaku did the same, the food was really good!

The man smiled as he saw how everyone enjoyed the food he cooked, Kuina finished her food first then asked:

"Are you the one who cooked this?" The man's smile remained on his face as he responded:

"Yes, I cooked this, want seconds, on the house for you." Kuina shook her head then posed another question to the blonde man:

"What's your name?"

The man straightened his tie and said:

"I'm called Sanji, sous chef of the floating restaurant Baratie, at your service."


	12. Sanji's refusal

Zoro scoffed at Sanji's introduction, he liked to make big things out of nothing, Kuina just asked him for his name, Sanji scoffed inside the same moment Zoro did, he didn't like the green-haired man but there was nothing he could do to him, he was way stronger than him and Sanji wasn't someone who would throw his life away for no reason.

Johnny and Yosaku burped in unison from the good food they had then patted their bulged bellies, Kuina got directly to the important part without any other fanfare:

"Sanji-san, our bounty hunter crew is in a dire need of a cook, I think it might be a little bit presumptuous of me to ask you to join us since your restaurant is a little bit understaffed currently, but would you like to join us?"

Sanji's eyes started to form hearts again as he thought of living every day near such a good looking goddess-like Kuina but afterward, he shook his head and said:

"If that's what you want I cannot help you If this is all that you wanted to order I will get you the bill."

Zoro was happy inwardly he didn't want this guy on his ship anyways, better for him to stay in this restaurant, Kuina nodded her head at Sanji then said:

"I see, you don't want to leave your job, get us the bill then." Out of the upper rooms of the restaurant a blonde-haired man with a giant blonde braided mustache and hair who wore a chef outfit and a big chef hat, he also had a peg leg. The man walked towards Sanji and he hit him over the head with his peg-leg then said:

"You goddamn eggplant finally a good excuse for me to throw you out and you refuse!" Sanji immediately got angry at the man and shouted at him:

"You shitty old man Zeff, if I leave and you die who will take care of the restaurant? Don't you see you are one leg in the grave?" Zeff didn't like the leg analogy so he gave him another peg-leg over the head out of the corner of Sanji's eyes some tears could be seen seeping out as he muttered to himself:

"Goddamn old man, why do you have to hit me with the peg-leg every time." As if nothing could escape Zeff's ears he harrumphed and said:

"You damn eggplant if I hit you with my good leg you would certainly say goodbye!" Sanji shuddered as he seemingly recalled something from the past but then he steeled himself and said:

"Whatever old man, you can't get rid of me so easily, I'm going to run this restaurant till you die and even after!" Zeff scoffed at him and said:

"Eggplant I still have many more years in me, you might get bored of this restaurant one day and want to leave the world, but you will realize that you are too old then!" Sanji didn't say anything but his silence confirmed that he didn't want to leave with Kuina and Zoro, Kuina waved towards Zeff and said:

"Chef Zeff is it? You don't have to force Sanji to leave if he doesn't want to." Zeff snorted and he said:

"This goddamn kid is a problem for me, every time a woman comes in the restaurant he gives them free food, he will make my restaurant go bankrupt!" Sanji continued to keep mum as what Zeff said was true.

Sanji left towards the kitchen and came back a few seconds later with the bill which read on it ten thousand bellies, the food wasn't that expensive Kuina paid for the food but Sanji was ready to tell her to keep her money but a glare from Zeff shut him up as Zeff came forward and took the money instead.

Since Sanji didn't want to join them nothing was keeping them tied to Baratie anymore so they left. Johnny and Yosaku pulled up the anchor and unfurled the sails afterward they got back to their training, Zoro was back to his multi-tasking training while Kuina was looking at some wanted posters and the map she wasn't decided which pirate they should go for next, there were only a few high bounties currently in east-blue, Aarlong of the Aarlong pirates, Buggy of the Buggy pirates and the one with the lowest Bounty on the higher tier of bounties was Alvida the iron mace, they had respectively bounties of twenty million, fifteen million and five million if they could hunt these pirates down they wouldn't have money problems for quite a long while.

Unfortunately, these pirates had no last seen locations, these people either killed everyone that saw them making it impossible to locate them or did their crimes very stealthily which was very unlikely because they were pirates, Kuina would go with number one rather than number two. Most pirates were obnoxious and had delusions of grandeur, there were very few pirates who played it smart, one such pirate was Kuro of the thousand plans but it seemed he was captured a few months ago by a marine lieutenant.

To find this trio of pirates they would have to search high and low in the east-blue, fortunately, they wouldn't be bored as there was still small fry out there that they could catch. Even if it was a mosquito it was still meat.

After a while of reading the bounty posters and looking at the map to get their next destination, Kuina decided to get towards the nearest island where Baratie was resupplying, there weren't that many criminals on the island, the maximum bounty was one hundred thousand, but why would they leave one hundred thousand bellies slip through their fingers?

Kuina stopped Johnny and Yosaku's training and made them grab the rudder and navigate towards the Wet Dog island which was only one hundred kilometers away, it would take them only one day and a maximum of two with unfavorable conditions.

Zoro stopped his weights training and sat cross-legged on the deck of the ship while all three of his swords stood on his lap, his brows scrunched as his teeth gnashed then he suddenly opened his eyes, he looked at Kuina then said:

"How are you able to hear your sword talking, all I can hear from my swords is static, it's like trying to talk to a wall." Kuina shook her head then said with uncertainty:

"My sword is Wado Ichimonji and it was created Shimotsuki Kozaburo, it's one of the It is one of the great twenty one O Wazamono swords, maybe this is why I can communicate with it, while your swords' quality is above average but they are normal swords, It is also said that Kozaburo always breathed a bit of soul in every one of his creations," Kuina told Zoro that conversating with her sword helped her quite a bit in improving but her Observation Haki and her swords technique, unfortunately for him he had no named swords and it would be very hard to get some since most of them were in the hands of the world government or pirates, east-blue was also pretty scarce considering good swords.

Kuina started to think about where to get Zoro some new swords when she suddenly got an idea:

"Maybe we can find some good swords in the city of the beginning and the end, Logue Town! It's near the grand line so it should have some goods swords, even though it might not have named swords it should have some high-quality swords that would be better than yours." Zoro nodded his head at Kuina's words afterward Kuina continued:

"Firstly let's get enough money, we don't know how expensive named swords are so we should get at least two to three million bellies, we have one million right now so we need one or two more, let's get to the next island then we will do pitstops at the islands that are in the way to Logue town."

It seemed like a great plan to Zoro, as long as he got some goods swords he could care less on how many islands he had to stop and how many criminals he had to cut down. After a few days of traveling, they got near Wet Dog Island after a few more minutes of navigating they docked and immediately went to resupply and eliminate their targets, this time Kuina let Johnny and Yosaku do the work so they could get some combat experience, unfortunately, for them they became too strong for normal grunts with bounties below one hundred thousand so they easily took care of everyone and cashed in the bounties.

Afterward, they started to navigate from island to island cashing in bounties and resupplying along the way, as they navigated the seas they got closer and closer to Logue town, after one full month they made up to three million and five hundred thousand bellies which they thought was enough to get Zoro some good swords. Johnny and Yosaku were excited they finally got to see so many islands and cash in bounties, they felt like true bounty hunters, they were extremely grateful towards Zoro and Kuina for taking the both of them under their wings.

After a few more days they finally reached Logue town, the place was infested with pirate ships and the docks were full of pirates, most of them had bounties above one hundred thousand and some of them even reached up to four million bellies. Zoro licked his lips as he looked at the bounty posters then at the wanted criminals down near the docks, he would make sure he could buy himself some good swords, Zoro jumped down from the ship and the pirates looked at him then chuckled while showing their missing teeth, most of the pirates either had missing teeth a hook for a hand or some kind of eyepatch it was really cliche.

Zoro didn't even bother to say anything, he appeared in the midst of them and rotated one time while saying:

"Three sword style: Tornado!" a Tornado of flying swords engulfed all of the pirates and cut them down to the bone killing them instantly afterward Zoro decapitated them and took their heads in a bunch of cloth which was now always with him.

Out of nowhere, a green-ash haired man appeared as smoke escaped out of his legs he was smoking a cigarette, he wore a gray jacket with fur linings at the neck with the kanji of justice on his back, he also had Jitte made of a peculiar stone strapped to his back, the man narrowed his eyes as he saw the massacre, he thought that even Akainu would blush in inferiority to the way the green-haired man treated those pirates.

The coughed a bit to take Zoro's attention, when Zoro saw him he walked towards him, the aura that Zoro gave off made the man tense up but the words that Zoro said calmed the man down:

"Do you know where the marine base is, I want to cash the bounty for all of the pirates, also are there any more pirates with bounties in Logue Town?" The man responded with a serious tone:

"I'm the newly instated marine Captain Smoker, you can follow me to the base to get your bounty." Zoro nodded his head but didn't follow him as he thought about something, Smoker didn't know what to think about Zoro stopping he started to get nervous again, even though he had the smoke-smoke fruit which made him invincible in east-blue his instincts told him this man could somehow beat him.

Zoro opened his mouth and said:

"What about the treasures of the pirates and their ships?" Smoker inwardly stopped sweating then said:

"Since you are the one who defeated the pirates we marines can give you up to twenty percent of their treasures and the cash value of the resold or recycled ships, my lieutenant will come later to count what we owe you, will you come with me now?" Zoro nodded his head as he followed after Smoker, Kuina left the ship but Smoker didn't see her as he was too focused on Zoro.

Zoro followed Smoker through the winding streets of Logue town to get to the marine base where he would cash in his bounty of approximatively fifteen million!

Zoro was sure he now had enough money to get a decent sword, maybe even a named one!


	13. Getting some swords and meeting someone

As Zoro followed Smoker around the city he also observed the architecture of the city, the houses were near each other and the alleyways were narrow, after a while they finally got near the execution platform and Zoro looked at it for a bit, Smoker observed Zoro's actions the whole time, it seemed he was sightseeing, Smoker realized that it truly was Zoro's first time in Logue Town, Smoker continued to walk and after a while, they finally reached the marine base.

Smoker opened the door of his office and invited Zoro in, the room was clean and neat, there were some papers on his desk that he needed to complete and a bunch of cigars in a special cigar holder, Smoker wanted to look for his lieutenant so she could get Zoro his bounty but the woman was missing, Smoker inhaled deeply from his cigar then threw the butt away and sighed:

"Well since she is away I will get you the cash and write the papers, goddamit when I became a Captain I thought I have finished with this boring stuff." Smoker left the office and came back with a briefcase full with bellies which he gave Zoro then he made him sign some papers which we also signed then he said:

"Ok now you have the money from the bounties, as for the money from the pirate's treasures and ships you will have to wait for a bit till my lieutenant comes back so I can inform her, I would do it myself, but she is better at identifying stuff she would give you a better price, in a maximum of half a day you can get the rest of your money since it's your first time in Logue Town I recommend more sightseeing."

Zoro smiled towards Smoker took the briefcase from him and then said:

"Thanks, Captain Smoker, actually I have a favor to ask, can you tell me where I can find a shop which sells swords?" Smoker nodded his head it was easy for him, he couldn't leave the office as he had to wait for his lieutenant so he gave Zoro the directions towards the best sword selling shop in Logue Town then said his goodbyes to the green-haired swordsman.

Zoro left the marine's office and used the directions to find the shop which had the best swords in Logue Town after a while of walking he finally found it Ipponmatsu's swords shop!

The moment he entered the shop he found out that there were two swords here that had souls! Using his Observation Haki he found that one was in the barrels which had swords with prices ranging from one hundred thousand bellies to ten thousand bellies and the other was in the back of the shop.

There was no one else in the shop beside the clerk the man had a big red nose small beady dark eyes and the middle of his head was balding he had hair on the parts of his head which were defying gravity as it was going up, the man known as Ipponmatsu was reading the newspaper his eyes wandered from the paper after he heard the bell signaling that he had a new customer, his eyes transformed into belli signs as he saw the man's briefcase, he must be a big spender! That's what he thought.

Zoro walked towards the barrels with the price range of one hundred thousand and ten thousand and Ipponmatsu started to become disappointed, what do you come with that briefcase for if you don't want to spend money!

Zoro immediately found what he was looking for when Ipponmatsu saw the sword the man picked his eyes bulged out and he shouted:

"Sir that sword isn't for sale it's..." But Zoro interrupted him with two words:

"It's cursed." Ipponmatsu eyes widened at Zoro's words, how did the young man know about this? Zoro unsheathed the sword and inspected it, the sword is a moderately curved katana with a white edge and a distinct blue Hamon that has the appearance of flames. Its tsuba is golden and shaped like a rounded cross pattée; the hilt is wrapped reddish-brown, with a golden clasp around its middle and a golden kashira pommel.

The sheath of the sword is deep red and continues the design of the hilt, having two golden clasps in short succession around its middle, and the kojiri end cap also being golden.

After he finished inspecting the sword he did a few practice slashes, the sword was extremely sharp and it radiated an extreme bloodlust in his senses, it felt like the sword itself wanted to drown the world in blood, Ipponmatsu tried to dissuade Zoro from buying the sword but Zoro shook his head then said:

"Curse or not let's see if the curse is stronger or my luck is stronger." Ipponmatsu's jaw almost hit the ground as he saw Zoro throwing the sword into the air and holding his arm out:

"Customer that Sword is extremely sharp retake your arm immediately!" but Zoro didn't and somehow centimeters off from the sword hacking his arm off the sword deviated from its path and buried itself in the floor. Ipponmatsu was sweating extremely hard but his jaw hit the floor again when he saw how the sword didn't hack Zoro's arm off. He immediately went to the back of the shop and came back with a long katana with a black handle. It had a cross-shaped guard and a black lacquered sheath. The blade itself was normal in appearance and its pattern was midareba or irregular pattern. Though mostly black, the sheath and the handle both had thin yet elaborate gold designs on them.

Ipponmatsu unsheathed the sword then said:

"This sword has been in my family for generations and it started to gather dust, I would be honored if a true swordsman like yourself took it and used it, Its name is Yubashiri." Zoro smiled at Ipponmatsu's words then took both of the swords and asked:

"How much do I owe you old man?" Ipponmatsu was torn on this situation the man looked like he had money but he didn't want to take money from a great swordsman like him so he quoted a relatively low price compared to the quality of the swords, Sandai Kitetsu was worth one million bellies but it was cursed so no one would buy it so he decided to sell it to him for one thousand bellies as for Yubashiri he decided to sell it to Zoro for one million and five hundred thousand bellies, the price of the sword was original seven million but he would feel bad to take so much money from the man.

Zoro gave Ipponmatsu what he owed him then left the shop, he had what he came from now he would wait to get the rest of his bellies and he would get back to east blue, his ship wasn't good enough to travel the grand line and he felt that he wasn't ready yet after he could fully use Armament Haki whenever he wanted and could keep up Observation Haki at least for few hours he would go for the grand line, he grew at relatively normal speeds which was quite slow for him but at least he didn't hit any bottleneck yet if he would hit a bottleneck he would have to go to the grand line earlier.

Zoro decided to do a bit more sightseeing before he left for his ship, Kuina was also shopping around for supplies and some other stuff she wanted like some new clothes, etc, Zoro decided to get some things for himself as well, he got three gold earrings which represented his three sword style and a black bandana which he tied to his right arm Zoro was a simple man so he didn't care about many things he also got some more clothes like his.

On his way back to the ship he bumped into someone who said:

"My glasses! I can't see without my glasses." Zoro got the glasses for the woman but his eyes widened as he saw her, she looked exactly like Kuina! He almost said Kuina when he saw her face, they looked too much alike, but she looked a bit younger. Zoro coughed then gave the woman the glasses, the woman bowed to Zoro then said:

"I'm sorry I'm doing this all of the time so clumsy so clumsy, I'm also running late, Captain Smoker will be mad!" She was ready to run off but Zoro grabbed her by the shoulder and said:

"Does the name Kuina tell you anything?" The woman shook her head then said:

"My name's Tashigi I don't know who this Kuina is, why do you ask?" Zoro shook his head then said:

"You look like her, very strange, you said you work with Smoker? You are a marine?" Tashigi nodded her head at Zoro's questions and Zoro continued:

"I know what Smoker needs you to do, I just finished talking to him a while ago after I cashed in my bounty, come with me to the docks." Tashigi wasn't sure if the man said the truth, but she decided to follow him. After a few tens of awkward silence, they finally reached the docks where Tashigi's eyes widened as she saw no pirates, this place was infested with pirates daily but now the docks were empty but there were still lots of ships docked.

Tashigi adjusted her glasses then asked Zoro:

"You are a bounty hunter right?" Tashigi didn't particularly like bounty hunters but at least she didn't hate them as much as pirates, Zoro nodded his head at Tashigi's question, he didn't like to call himself a bounty hunter, he just needed money and this was the best legal way to make it.

Tashigi gave him another question:

"So I guess Smoker would want me to inspect the ships and confiscate the stolen treasures and sell the ships afterward... Ok, let's see." Tashigi was a smart young woman, she knew what she needed to do before Zoro even said anything, She walked towards the ships but almost slipped and fell but Zoro caught her easily, out of nowhere Kuina appeared with Johnny and Yosaku carrying some of her bags.

Something seemed wrong to her seeing a younger version of herself being caught by Zoro so she sprinted towards them, Tashigi looked at Kuina and her glasses almost fell off her face as she said:

"Kuina?" Kuina eyes narrowed then said:

"How do you know my name?" Zoro interfered and said that he told her about Kuina and how they looked extremely similar, and it was true, they looked like two peas from a pod, but they couldn't be twin sisters as their ages didn't match, Tashigi was a bit younger, she was as young as Zoro both being sixteen, Kuina was eighteen.

They started talking about their past immediately to see if there was anything they could remember, Kuina even told her about the things that happened before she came to east blue, Tashigi, however, didn't remember much of her childhood she knew that she was abandoned and a marine orphanage found her and took her in, she was a good and talented child and she got enrolled in the marines at ten years old, after instructage and training she became a marine, after a few more years of training she became a petty officer then she started to skyrocket ranks till she became a lieutenant and was put under Smoker's tutelage, it looked like there was no connection between the two of them on the surface.

But it seemed like Kuina was holding something back, it was unknown what but it would solve the strange situation at hand, Johnny and Yosaku were still looking back and forth between Kuina and Tashigi, they weren't sure what they were supposed to say here so they just kept their mouth shut.

Zoro himself had nothing to say as it wasn't his job to wander into this, Kuina thought to herself for a while then said:

"The best chance to uncover this would be to meet with my father, he should know about this, I also know something but I'm not sure about it as I can barely remember it." Tashigi herself felt that it was very strange, the resemblance between them was uncanny, might they be sisters? even though they weren't twins sometimes brothers and sisters could still look like each other even though they weren't twins.

Tashigi shook her head of these thoughts then said:

"I could come with you to your father but first I need to do my duty as a marine lieutenant then I would have to ask Smoker-san for a vacation." She got a little notebook from her shirt pocket and a pencil then started to inspect the pirate ships, she entered them and then left them with a few more lines on the notebook, after one hour of inspection she sighed then put her notebook back then said:

"I will go to Smoker-san give him the report then come back with the money, hopefully, he will give me a vacation too." Tashigi left quickly and came as quickly with a briefcase of bellies but she didn't come alone Smoker was with her, his eyes widened as he laid his eyes on Kuina and he mumbled to himself:

"It's true they look the same!" Smoker nodded at Tashigi then said:

"Ok you got yourself a vacation Lieutenant Tashigi, go and find out about past." Smoker wasn't an absolute justice follower, he cared about his subordinates unlike an angry magma man from Marineford

Tashigi saluted Smoker and said:

"Thank you, Captain Smoker!" Smoker smiled at her then he ruffled her hair and told her:

"I know your background kid, it's quite pitiful, go find what happened in your past, you deserve it!"

Tashigi blushed at Smoker's actions and pushed his hand away Zoro shook his head at their actions and said:

"Ok, I guess it's time to go now, embark the ship and we can go back to our Island, right Kuina?" Kuina nodded her head then waved towards Tashigi indicating it was time to go. Tashigi smiled then embarked on the ship Johnny and Yosaku immediately made themselves useful and the ship left the docks of Logue Town, the town of the beginning and the end.

The next destination will be Kuina's and Zoro's hometown!


	14. The truth of the past

The distance between Zoro and Kuina's island with Logue Town was pretty big, it would take them at least a month of sailing to get back at their current speed, of course, the time would be cut off with the help of the living speed motor known as Zoro. Tashigi eyes popped open the first time she saw Zoro jump in the water and make the ship look motorized.

Tashigi looked at Kuina and asked:

"Does he do that often?" Kuina chuckled and responded to her:

"Everyday." Tashigi never asked about Zoro again afterward, he was a strange fellow to her, very strong used three swords, didn't seem particularly smart but not dumb either, Johnny and Yosaku were funny characters to her, calling her the sister of big sis Kuina and all that, Tashigi felt different compared to the time she was in the marines, the marines taught her discipline and how to follow the orders of higher-ups, she was also taught swordsmanship and how to navigate shoot a gun properly, etc.. marines were taught everything they needed to survive at sea before they were given a rank and allotted to a Captain, afterward doing well or catching pirates with relatively high bounties would increase your rank in the marines.

For some people rank was everything, all they wanted was to increase their rank and clout in the marines so they could abuse their power, there were more than a few marines like these in east-blue Zoro and Kuina met them some times when they cashed in bounties, but these type of marines weren't that dumb, they knew when to act good and when to act like they owned the place if a bounty hunter came in with the heads of pirates that were worth up to one million bellies they wouldn't be normal people. This kind of marines wanted results without the care of means, they were similar to Akainu in a way, every corrupt marine was like a mini Akainu but they cared less about justice they had their agendas.

Johnny and Yosaku's training helped them quite a lot, Kuina told Zoro how in Logue Town they met with some pirates with a bounty of one million and the duo beat them! They grew steadily and they were ready for Zoro's training after they finished Zoro's training Zoro would ask them if they want to leave or stay with them, they were pretty funny guys but if they didn't want to remain with them afterward he wouldn't blame them, everyone had their dreams.

Zoro chuckled to himself as he sat cross-legged on the deck of the ship he almost reached eighty percent mastery in armament haki and his chances of using it were almost perfect all the time he tried to use it, Tashigi watched Zoro as his arms hardened and darkened with wonder in her eyes, she was too low ranked in the marines to know about haki, only captains and above who visited marineford get some information about haki, Smoker knew about it but he didn't start training it yet due to the lack of time as he was instated in Logue Town as it's new captain, now he had tons of paperwork and pirates to catch so his training time would get lowered.

Tashigi looked as Kuina did the same training as Zoro, her arms would also harden and darken from time to time but it seemed she was less proficient in the technique compared to Zoro, she would fail to use armament quite often as it was a forty percent chance for her. Tashigi didn't like being idle so she started training with her sword as well, her sword sheath was green with gold linings while the handle was green with black linings, there were some patterns on the sword that looked like waves, she started her swordsmanship training with a few slashes here and there and then meditated. It seemed she took a different approach to swordsmanship compared to Zoro and Kuina.

Her training took the attention of Johnny and Yosaku so they asked for a spar from her, Tashigi didn't turn them down, it's been quite a while since she sparred with someone and there was still quite the time till they would reach Zoro and Kuina's island so she had time to burn with training.

Tashigi took a fighting stance putting one foot in front and one behind while keeping her sword in front of her at an angle that kept the sword near her body, the sword style seemed to be based on speed and reaction to the opponent's attacks, Johnny was the first to go against Tashigi he entered in his stance putting one foot in front and keeping the other where it was, he used only one arm to handle his sword which was a cutlass, not a katana. It would be a stretch to call the duo of Johnny and Yosaku swordsmen even with the training from Kuina, Kuina taught them basics and how to train their bodies to the best of their abilities but that didn't mean their skills were that great, while strength is something you can gain as long as you train the same can't be said about skill, some people just aren't very talented in swordsmanship.

Johnny wanted to rush towards Tashigi and catch her off guard but Tashigi already had her guard up, it was the specialty of her swordsmanship unless someone was way stronger than her she wouldn't be taken by surprise in this kind of confrontations. Johnny suddenly felt cold as he looked down at his chest, a long red line appeared on it as his shirt was cut off horizontally, Johnny shuddered then said:

"I give up!" Tashigi eyes suddenly focused again as they were unfocused after she did her first then she said:

"Oh, we are done already?" Johnny nodded his head fast then left her alone, Yosaku looked between where Johnny stood some seconds ago then at Tashigi then where Johnny stood again and said:

"I have to help Johnny see ya later Kuina's sis." then he darted after Johnny leaving Tashigi alone, Tashigi sighed at their antics but then Kuina approached her and asked:

"Want to spar with me?" Tashigi smiled at Kuina and nodded her head, she wanted to see how strong her twin is, she knew she was no match for Zoro, that man was strong as a gorilla or even a sea king, as Tashigi took a better look at Kuina's sword her eyes widened as she said:

"That's Wado Ichimonji one of the twenty Wazamono!" She opened up a little swords booklet and started to read:

"Created by Enma during the Sengoku period, its sharpness and durability are off the charts it being of the best swords in the world! Its price range starts at ten million and it can go up!" She closed the booklet afterward and asked:

"Where did you get Wado Ichimonji Kuina?" Kuina smiled at Tashigi's inquire and responded to her:

"It was my father's before he retired, we came from the grand line to the east blue due to some um.. complications." Tashigi nodded her head, Kuina's father was the one who should be able to respond to all of their questions.

Tashigi unsheathed her own sword while they both took different stances, one slash after another Tashigi tried to hit Kuina but Kuina had learned Observation Haki so it was easier said than done to hit an Observation Haki user while you knew jack about Haki. Out of nowhere, sword winds started to hit Tashigi ripping some of her clothes here and there, Tashigi gritted her teeth and forced herself to endure the slashes.

She took a drawing sword stance and suddenly appeared behind Kuina but instead of Kuina being she was cut instead! A little bit of blood appeared at the corners of her mouth which she cleaned off with the corners of her shirt cuffs.

Kuina shook her head and said:

"You have too many openings when you attack after you got cut by the sword winds you should have gone on the defensive instead and try to find an opening from me instead of enduring them head-on, you didn't even follow your sword style there, why?" Tashigi was embarrassed by Kuina's words, it was true this wasn't her sword style, she felt quite dumb for some reason, she thought she would be able to take care of Kuina as she did with Johnny, maybe she looked down on Kuina subconsciously because she was a bounty hunter. Tashigi shook her head and said:

"I'm sorry it won't happen again." Kuina nodded at her then left her alone so she could rest, Zoro looked at everything that happened down from the crow's nest, one of his favorite places, when he wasn't training he was either drinking or sleeping in the crow's nest. He had his hand on a bottle of ale and observed how Tashigi and Kuina bonded, they were for sure related they looked too much alike, even though one was a marine and the other a bounty hunter they still could be friends as bounty hunters worked with the world government, if Kuina was a pirate that would have been a problem.

After a few days of navigating with the super speed motor known as Zoro, they reached the island in record time. Koshiro at first was surprised to see them back already but his jaw dropped to the ground and his eyes bulged out when he saw Tashigi as he muttered to himself:

"You are still alive..." Tashigi eyes widened at his words, his voice and face seemed familiar to her but it was like something was slipping from her whenever she tried to remember. Kuina told Koshiro of how they meet in Logue Town and Koshiro nodded his head at the story then he asked Tashigi about her life, Tashigi told Koshiro what she told Kuina, how she was an orphan which the marines took in how she trained, etc.

Koshiro's eyes started to water as he said with his voice trembling:

"If only your mother was here to see the two of you." These words confirmed that they were indeed sisters, Kuina and Tashigi said in unison:

"What happened back then?" Koshiro cleaned his glasses with his shirt while Zoro Johnny and Yosaku were listening as well, Zoro sat cross-legged on the floor while drinking some tea Koshiro prepared for everyone, Johnny and Yosaku were mimicking Zoro but when they drank the tea they almost burned themselves with it because it was too hot!

Koshiro coughed a bit then he started to narrate a story:

"Back when I was eighteen years old my island couldn't keep me anymore, I defeated every swordsman on it regardless of age or gender, I was feeling great like I was the best of the best, that until I left the island and I got my ass handed to me directly in the second island I ever put my foot in my life, your mother was the one who did that, ah I remember she was a fiery one and you both resemble her so much, anyways let's continue the story."

"After she beat me I started following her around always asking her for a rematch, after one thousand and one matches I finally won my first match, afterward I left the island but I surprised to find out that she started to follow me after that! We started fighting again but we knew each other moves after we fought so many times so we couldn't decide who was the victor anymore even if we wanted to, we fought for days in a row but we still couldn't find out who the winner would be, so we gave up on fighting, you know one thing leads to another and we became friends and after that more than friends. But it wasn't immediately more than a few years and adventures had gone over us before we married."

"I was already thirty years old when we had Kuina, two years later little Tashigi came out, I was under the tutorship of the worlds greatest swordsman at the time, Zanshiro Monozoma he was from the Great Wano country and he just came to the new world, unfortunately for him, that's where his grave is now. Let's keep things a bit shorter Mihawk the new worlds greatest swordsman came in with his giant sword Yoru and decapitated Zanshiro, I wanted to save the honor of the master and decided to fight with Mihawk, it was a bad decision on my part, he cut me down easily and gave me an injury that ended my swordsman career." Here Koshiro pulled up his shirt showing a scar that went from his chest down to his stomach, it looked really ugly and even though it seemed healed it still interfered with his daily activities, as he grew older it might even kill him if he did sudden movements.

Kuina covered her mouth with her hands as she saw the scar, she remembered how her father would get mad at her when she was little and she wanted to take baths together with him, he would say that it was inappropriate for a man and woman to bath together especially if they are related, while it was true he also did it to hide his scar.

Koshiro coughed a bit as he let the shirt cover the scar and he continued:

"Your poor mother Shigoki saw red in front of her eyes when she saw how Mihawk cut me down like an animal, unfortunately for her, he wasn't as good to her as he was with me, the cut he gave her was fatal and I could do was watch her bleed out to death in my arms, I couldn't move either I thought I would die with her but then I remembered I had two little girls I had to take care off, The island was in pandemonium, pirates were looting the place up and fires were everywhere, I was extremely pained when I only found Kuina in our home but all I could do was steel myself and take her with me and run away, with my injury there was no way I could survive the new world anymore, maybe paradise but I needed a safe place to heal it thoroughly so I took the weakest sea as the place east-blue." He sighed as he remembered everything but then a smile appeared on his face:

"But you are ok, you are alive and ok, I don't care you became a marine as long as you are happy with who you are, but I have only one question, do you remember anything about what happened back then after you heard my story?" Tashigi had tears in her eyes as she heard the story of her father but she shook her head, there was nothing her head was blank she couldn't remember anything besides some ringing in her ears and a silhouette of a fire. Even though it was little she told Koshiro about it. Koshiro shook his head at her words and said:

"There might be a chance a beam hit you while you were running away and you got intoxicated with the fumes of the fire, somebody must have saved you, how did you even get to east-blue from the new world?" That was unknown to Tashigi as well, one day she just woke up in the marine orphanage and she was taken in.

Zoro got up from his position on the ground and asked:

"Koshiro can you tell me more about Mihawk, what's he like? How are his techniques? how strong is he?"

Koshiro shook his head at his words and said:

"I can't gauge his strength it's been a long time and he must have improved up till now, but I have two words for you, the best! as for techniques, he prefers long-range flying slashes, but that doesn't mean he is bad at short-range fighting, how's he like? He is a very serious man and he has a no-nonsense attitude it's my fault for challenging him back then if I didn't I think our family would still be together, he told me he couldn't control his strength well at that time but I was too stubborn and angry at master's death, it's my fault everything happened." Koshiro's eyes started to water as he started to bow towards his daughters but suddenly Kuina and Tashigi stopped him and said in unison:

"No parent should bow to their children, pride is as important to a swordsman as his life, even though what you did was wrong and we blame you for it, we also forgive you, you are our only family left and we don't want you to get hurt!" Afterward, the trio hugged Johnny and Yosaku started to cry like they watched the saddest thing ever, they almost made up a river of tears.

Zoro had a serious look on his face, Mihawk wasn't someone he could contend against yet, it seemed it was still a long way before he would be able to challenge the man known as the best, especially since he had to go to the new world to meet with him, Koshiro already explained to them how the grand line worked and Zoro knew that the new world was a dangerous place where marines and pirates mingled together, the four emperors were also living there lurking beneath the waves of the ocean, figuratively three of them had devil fruits so they couldn't swim.

Zoro put his swords back to his hip and said:

"So are we going back to Logue Town to get Tashigi back or?" Tashigi shook her head at his question then said:

"Let me stay with father a few days, Smoker-san will understand when I explain everything to him, ok?" Zoro nodded his head and Kuina also said she wants some alone family time. Zoro decided to leave the trio family alone with each other and dragged Johnny and Yosaku out before they would drown in their tears.

Zoro meditated outside as he thought about the future and mumbled to himself:

"Hawk Eyes Mihawk, I wonder what are you doing right now?"

A red-haired man was patting a man with a purple fedora and purple jacket with peculiar-looking eyes, the man also had a giant black sword with a gold-encrusted handle on his back. It seemed the man with the fedora drank too much and now he feeding the ducks when he suddenly started to hiccup as well, the red-haired man started to laugh out loud with a grin on his face as he said:

"Seems someone is talking about you!" The man just continued to feed the ducks.


	15. Aarlong's whereabouts

Zoro was patiently waiting outside with Johnny and Yosaku. Johnny and Yosaku were talking on and on and Zoro was ready to punch them in the face to silence both of them up, they were getting annoying when suddenly the topic of the discussion changed towards bounties:

"Yo Johnny, this Aarlong guy has the biggest bounty in the east blue think we can take him on after all the training we did with big bro and big sis?" Yosaku asked as he took out a poster that showed a shark man with a big sharp nose and a tattoo with a sun on his chest, his gills could be seen on his neck.

Johnny took a pondering expression then he said:

"I don't think we would be able to defeat him Yosaku, I don't think we trained enough, we can barely beat people with bounties of four million and you want to jump directly at twenty?"

Yosaku scratched the back of his head awkwardly and laughed, he felt stronger and stronger every day and he wanted to take care of big shots now but Johnny's words woke him up, if he fought any strong pirate he might just go and die without knowing how he died.

Zoro watched the picture of Aarlong on the wanted poster and scoffed, he could care less about what this fish-man did in east-blue but he was quite bored these days, there were no challenges for him anymore if he knew the location of the Aarlong he would sail there in a breath so he could take him on for a fight and take his bounty as well, he doubted Aarlong would be able to beat him but he should give him a bigger challenge shouldn't he? After a few hours of waiting Tashigi and Kuina came out and they seemed closer than ever.

Kuina opened her mouth and said:

"We talked about everything that could be talked about, Tashigi and I decided that she should go back to Logue Town, her captain Smoker while understanding still needs her there, she told me he hates paperwork." Tashigi nodded her head at Kuina's words, while Smoker was a good fighter he couldn't defeat paperwork at all, this was a problem even with admirals, most admirals got a few people to work on their paperwork, especially Kuzan, he was the laziest of the bunch and he had over ten secretaries working for him, Akainu was too angry to do paperwork while Kizaru didn't get much paperwork because of his general tardiness and lack of interest in things, even though Kuzan was the laziest Kizaru was right behind him, this a strange thing since Kizaru ate the light-light fruit, he was quite slow if you met him even though he was supposed to be the fastest man alive.

The men and women went to their ship and left the island Koshiro was at the docks waving towards his daughters and he shouted out loud:

"Take care! also don't date any strange boys out there!" Tashigi and Kuina blushed at their father's words Zoro and the other two laughed and the ship started to disappear on the horizon.

Koshiro sighed as he limped back to the dojo, his injury didn't let him live as he wanted. Zoro continued to train with weights while he concentrated on mastering both of his Hakis, he also jumped off the ship from time to time to become it's motorized engine so they could get to Logue Town faster.

In ten days they reached Logue Town and left Tashigi there afterward Kuina gave her goodbyes and well wishes to her sister. Time passed as one more year gone by making Zoro seventeen and Kuina nineteen. After one year of training and adventures in east blue Zoro fully mastered Armament making it appear whenever he wanted now he only refined armament to increase its strength and duration, he could now hold Observation Haki for hours on end unconsciously but there were also some times Observation would turn itself off so he can recharge his mind faculties, Observation was training itself at this point so Zoro didn't have to do any conscious efforts to train it anymore.

Kuina also mastered armament and she was only a little bit above Zoro in Observation, as for her armament proficiency we could say that she was quite behind Zoro, but hey at least she could use armament whenever she wanted. Johnny and Yosaku were the ones who improved the most in this one year their power increased so much they were new people, even though they still couldn't hold a candle to Zoro and Kuina they were pretty strong bounty hunters who could survive paradise easily.

In this one year besides training, they accumulated over fifty million bellies while bounty hunting, east blue was almost pirate free, they gained quite the big reputation as the demonic bounty hunter duo since they killed every pirate extremely fast most of the time by decapitation.

Johnny shouted as he walked outside the ship's cabin indicating towards everyone to come to him, it seems he had news!

"Guys there's new about Aarlong's whereabouts, up until now a marine hid his location because he got bribed but one of the locals of the island where Aarlong is located right now got his hands on a den-den mushi somehow and leaked his location! We can now take care of east-blue strongest pirate!" Zoro smiled as he could finally get a strong opponent, with the money he would make off his hide he would also have enough money to buy a ship and go to the grand line! His bounty hunter group was already invited to a grand line bounty hunter organization known as Baroque Works but he declined due to the shady nature of the organization.

Zoro didn't particularly if he was the captain leader, etc of something as long as he got stronger and fulfilled his dream, he was a simple man who liked few things which were alcohol, his swords, and his dream, unknowingly to him Kuina was also included in those things he liked.

Kuina nodded her head at Johnny's words then she looked at Zoro and asked:

"Do we go now Zoro? or do you want to do something else?" Zoro shook his head there was nothing else to do in east blue after he gathered the money he would immediately order a good ship and wait for it to be made, there was no reason to keep staying in east-blue.

Zoro then said:

"Ok let's go, actually where are we supposed to go?" Johnny unfolded a map which he brought from inside the ship and pointed towards some islands which read 'Conomi Islands' and said:

"Conomi Islands is a chain of islands that have been brought under Aarlong's fins, the guy who informed the marines about the situation on the islands is most likely dead currently, Aarlong rules the islands with an iron fist and he kills anyone that doesn't pay their monthly taxes, I kind of feel bad for the residents." Zoro nodded his head at Johnny's explanation then said:

"Ok since we know where to go let's go, at full power towards Conomi Islands!" everyone complied with Zoro's command and started to navigate towards Conomi Islands where Aarlong was supposedly terrorizing the islanders.

It took them a bit to get to Conomi Islands and they were met with a bunch of marines trying to attack Aarlong Park the place where Aarlong resided, but they were met with their doom as a giant sea cow came out of nowhere and sunk their ship killing them in the process. Zoro shook his head at the marines, almost all east-blue marines were goddamn weaklings, only Smoker and Tashigi were decent marines.

The cow was ready to attack Zoro's ship as well but a glare from him suddenly made the cow start sweating intensely for some reason, the cow looked extremely scared like it would piss itself any moment now, it started to moo then swam towards Aarlong park at high speeds. Zoro wondered what was all that about, he only glared at the cow he didn't even unsheath his swords or unleashed his aura, whatever that was Zoro didn't care particularly much about it so he just made the ship go towards Aarlong Park.

There he was met face to face with Aarlong who was looking the same as in his poster, also, he was wearing an aloha yellow shirt, blue Bermuda shorts, and sandals he had quite the crowd of fish-men around him Zoro felt that the strongest fish-men where the octopus man the man with big elbows who wore a karate gi and the man with big lips, they were staying near Aarlong and trying to look scary.

Zoro shook his head at their attempt of looking scary but before he could say anything Aarlong beat him to it:

"So you are the demon swordsman Roronoa Zoro? finally came after my bounty have you?" Zoro nodded his head and said:

"Yes, please don't come along easily, I especially like it when they struggle." Zoro unsheathed all three of his swords and put his black bandana on almost covering his eyes for those looking at him, he jumped from the ship and landed near the pool that extended into the sea of Aarlong Park. Aarlong started to laugh at Zoro's words:

"Shahahaha, you heard this, boys? This inferior human wants to apprehend me and take me to these weakling marines Shahahaha!" He didn't even get off his lawn chair as he said:

"Kuroobi, Chu, Hachi take care of this fool for me, please make sure he becomes Moo Moo's food." The henchman trio said in unison:

"Yes, Aarlong-sama." They wanted to take care of Zoro so they directly threw themselves at him while Hachi the octopus went into the building that was behind them and came back with eight swords in each of his octopus hand, Zoro shook his head at them and said:

"You are too weak for me, but since you don't feel it I guess I will just take you down." Zoro appeared amid the trio and spun himself like a tornado once while saying:

"Three sword style: dragon tornado!" Out of Zoro's swords, a bunch of sword light came out that transformed into a tornado which started cutting the henchmen trio and any other grunts that were dumb enough to get near it, a dragon howl could be suddenly heard coming out of the tornado as a Chinese dragon suddenly came out of the tornado and roared at the sky. After a few more seconds the technique dispersed and the shredded remains of the trio appeared, only Hachi the octopus was still relatively alive but one of his arms was cut off, it seems he got lucky and entered the eye of the storm where it was the safest.

Aarlong saw red in front of his face as he suddenly shouted:

"YOU INFERIOR HUMAN HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO MY BROTHERS I WILL KILL YOU!" Aarlong jumped inside the building and came out with a long sword, some of the still alive grunts shouted out:

"It's the kiribachi, Aarlong-sama is angry!" Zoro smiled at the sword then he said:

"That sword is quite big, are you compensating for something with it?" Aarlong eyes started to look like an enraged sea king's Zoro's words and he threw himself at Zoro trying to hack him into pieces.

Suddenly Zoro seemed like he had no bones as he easily dodged every of Aarlong's reckless swings like Zoro knew whatever Aarlong would do before he did it!

After a few seconds of dodging Zoro shook his head as he said:

"Too weak, I thought you as someone with a bounty with twenty million would be somehow different but you are too weak! Time to say goodbye you racist Fishman." Zoro sheathed his weak sword and Yubashiri leaving only Kitetsu out he approached Aarlong slowly as his eyes couldn't be seen due to them being shadowed by his bandana.

Zoro smirked and Aarlong suddenly recovered his sanity when he looked at Zoro's smirk he started to shake, Aarlong was scared! A peculiar aura was around Zoro as the air around him started to crack. Suddenly he appeared behind Aarlong and sheathed Kitetsu while saying slowly:

"One sword style: lion song" A deep cut appeared on Aarlong's chest almost splitting him in two his organs and cut bones could be sawn through the gap that now appeared on Aarlong chest, Aarlong started to foam a bloody froth at the mouth as he became unconscious but he didn't fall, he remained the same standing on his feet with the same expression of fear on his face, it was unknown if he was still alive or not. A shout from Zoro's ship took him out of his reverie:

"SO COOL BIG BRO ZORO, YOU ARE SO COOL!" Kuina smiled at Zoro, the fight did truly look kind of 'cool' as Yosaku said, she waved at Zoro then said:

"Let's inform the villagers and everyone else about how Aarlong is done, I will take care of the rest of the fishmen for you, you go with Johnny and Yosaku." Kuina suddenly jumped from the ship and unsheathed her sword, twenty seconds later there were no standing fishmen anymore.

Zoro smiled at Kuina's antics and gave her a thumbs-up as he took his bandana off his head and tied it back to his left arm.

It was time to inform the villagers! Zoro Johnny and Yosaku left for the villages while Kuina remained there to look after the alive fishmen, At first, the villagers were skeptical and even angry when they heard the three men saying that Aarlong Park fell but when they followed them towards the park and saw how it was and Aarlong standing on his feet with a bloody froth at his mouth they started to shout and party on the spot! The man who partied the hardest was a man that looked like he got cut and stitched right back, he had a pinwheel on his hat and he wore a brown police uniform, he shouted towards everyone:

"NAMI IS FREE, WE ARE FREE!" A dark-skinned blue-haired woman with a tattoo of a tangerine on her left shoulder was crying tears of happiness but the man with the police suit patted her on the back and said:

"It's ok Nojiko, Bellemere's soul has been avenged by these courageous men." He pointed towards Zoro Johnny and Yosaku, but Johnny and Yosaku shook their heads as they pointed at Zoro and said out loud enough for everyone to hear:

"We didn't do anything, big brother Zoro did everything, he cut down Aarlong where he stood with his sword, he is an awesome guy!" Nojiko eyes widened as she looked at Zoro then at the man then at Zoro again:

"Did I hear right Genzo? Did they say Zoro? Roronoa Zoro the demon bounty hunter?" The man now known as Genzo nodded his head as his eyes were as wide as Nojiko's Zoro's reputation even reached paradise currently, the small fries in east-blue would piss their pants at Zoro's name and the mention of his three sword style. Nojiko approached Zoro then she suddenly gave him a hug Zoro awkwardly returned the hug then pushed her back Nojiko scratched the back of her head and laughed awkwardly.

A shout could be heard coming from the docks as an orange-haired woman ran over, she had a white shirt and an orange skirt and she wore sandals, it was Nami!

Nojiko ran forward and hugged Nami back while saying:

"It's ok Nami you don't have to go search for money anymore, a hero saved us, he defeated Aarlong and all of his cronies!" Nami's eyes widened at her words when suddenly her whole village came over and said the same things Nami's eyes widened further as she said in a whisper:

"You all knew?" They all nodded their heads at the same time and said while pointing at Zoro:

"He saved us!" Nami eyes almost fell from her eye sockets as she saw Zoro, she remembered him and of course, Zoro remembered Nami as well, he waved towards her and said in a casual tone of voice:

"What have you been up to, thief?" Nami blushed at the nickname and coughed a bit then said:

"Thank you for saving my village Zoro." Zoro shook his head at her words then said:

"I did it for the bounty and to see how strong is Aarlong don't talk to me like I'm a hero, everyone if you want to thank me properly, bring me some booze!" Everyone laughed at Zoro's words but he shouted afterward:

"I'M SERIOUS!" Everyone continued laughing After Kuina made sure she tied every Fishman that was still alive properly she decided to see what the racket was about and when she saw Nami she was surprised, she immediately guessed what the money was for considering the situation of the village, she approached Nami and gave her a playful fist in the shoulder and said:

"So this is why you were stealing!" Nami blushed at Kuina's words then she nodded her head at her, fortunately, she didn't have to steal from pirates and endanger her life anymore now that Aarlong was taken care of. Zoro approached Kuina and said:

"You still have that den-den mushi your sister gave you? Call some marines over here to give us our bounty." Kuina nodded her head and a mini den-den mushi opened itself on Kuina's wrist, it was like a mini watch but you could talk into it!

"At Conomi Islands request marines for the bounty of Aarlong the shark, there are also quite a few of his underlings left so you have to come with a prison ship!" A 'roger' could be heard from the mini den-den Mushi's mouth and then it closed itself. Nami sighed, it was finally done!

A giant party exploded on the Conomi Islands after Aarlong was taken by the marines, or what remained of him a sack of money was given to Zoro which contained twenty million bellies and not an amount less, Nami's eyes transformed into belli signs at the look of the money, twenty million was the amount needed to buy the island back but now she had fifteen million cash she didn't know what to do with, she suddenly decided to give it to the villagers for some reason. Zoro didn't know about her money and even if he knew he wouldn't have said anything to her as it wasn't his business.

Zoro and Kuina were drinking like there was no tomorrow, while Johnny and Yosaku were eating and telling tales to the villagers, Nami was reforging her tattoo with the help of the doctor of the village.

Suddenly Kuina put her cup of ale down and she said:

"Zoro what do you think of me?" Zoro was oblivious to the underlying tone of the question and he said:

"You are a great swordsman and my best friend since childhood, and I like you!" Kuina blushed at Zoro's words, she was a bit tipsy as she continued:

"Well, Zoro I like you too!" Zoro didn't bat an eyelid at her words, he guessed it was normal for friends to like each other, what kind of friends hated each other? Kuina was puzzled at Zoro's lack of reaction but she guessed Zoro already somehow knew she liked him? She tried to push her luck and got near Zoro slowly she was leaning in for a kiss. Zoro here actually got flustered, was this normal between friends?

Suddenly everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Zoro and Kuina, Zoro didn't know what to do so he followed Kuina's lead and kissed her on the mouth. Kuina yelped and blushed then looked at Zoro with a peculiar look on her face then she ran away.

Zoro scratched the back of his head and said out loud:

"I don't understand women." Almost all of the men currently on the island said in unison:

"AYE!" The women just shook their heads at the men and the party continued till the morning.


	16. Nami joins the team?

Zoro woke up groggily from the ground and muttered to himself:

"How much did I drink last night?" Johnny seemingly out of nowhere came and said:

"Quite a lot big bro Zoro, you literally drank everyone under the table before drinking some more and collapsing yourself, we watched you do it, we are not particularly good with drinks so we decided to watch, somehow you are the first to wake up too!" Zoro looked around and saw tons of people sleeping on the ground but it seemed they were all happy as they had huge smiles on their face, it was either the alcohol making them happy or the fact that Aarlong was finally gone, Zoro thought it was more likely to be the second option combined a little with the first.

Kuina was nowhere to be seen as Zoro started to look for her, he still remembered what happened last night and he wanted to confront her about it, he didn't really know what to feel and he wanted to make sure her feelings for him were true. As he walked outside the village he met Nami waiting for him, she now sported a green sleeveless shirt and a brown skirt with white lines she also wore brown sandals on her feet. The Aarlong tattoo which was on her right shoulder was now transformed into a combination of a tangerine and a pinwheel. Zoro looked at Nami but before he could ask her what she wanted she took the initiative to talk:

"Thanks for helping me and my village out by defeating Aarlong." She smiled towards Zoro and it was a genuine smile that transmitted her feelings to Zoro, they were feelings of happiness and a new beginning for her and her family, Zoro smiled towards Nami and said:

"No problem, we actually wanted to come to beat Aarlong earlier but we didn't know where he was, only recently due to a leak of information we found out he lived here." Nami's smile turned a bit stiff at his words as she muttered:

"Yona, your sacrifice won't be forgotten." It seemed the man known as Yona sacrificed himself by sending the information out with the den-den mushi. Zoro nodded his head and left Nami to her own devices while he started to look for Kuina again. After a while of searching, he found her near a cliff where a wooden grave was erected, it seemed she was just staying there looking at the ocean.

Zoro approached her but Kuina already knew and she said while looking back at Zoro:

"Do you think that last night was a mistake?" Zoro shook his head at her words and said:

"No, actually you left before I could talk anything with you, anyway I don't think this is a good location to talk you know." He pointed towards the grave and Kuina nodded, it wasn't an appropriate place to talk about their feelings so they left the site.

After a few minutes of walking, they were now in the middle of the forest that surrounded the village, Zoro opened his mouth to say something but Kuina beat him to it:

"What do you think about us?" Zoro scratched the back of his head and said:

"I don't mind if you don't mind Kuina, I actually like you as you like me, at first I didn't know what to say to you after you kissed me, you know that we know each other since we were little brats and it's quite awkward but I can say that I do like you, you know in that way." Kuina's eyes started to water at his words but she cleaned them with the sleeves of her shirt then she jumped into his embrace. Zoro smiled at her then reciprocated the hug. Immediately afterward Kuina went for Zoro's lips, Zoro awkwardly kissed her, the kiss was as awkward as their first one since both of them had no experience but after a while of kissing they started to perfect their technique.

A cough could be heard as Nami approached both of them from the direction of the village, flustered both of them separated and they looked at Nami with a blush covering their faces. Nami shook her head at their antics then said:

"Your friends were looking all over for you, Johnny and Yosaku were their names I think, but if you want to I can tell them I didn't see you and you can continue your session." She winked at them and was ready to leave them alone, but the interruption from Nami killed the mood by quite a bit so they decided to follow her back to the village.

Nami looked at both of them and decided to not comment on their decision then suddenly she remembered something:

"The marines didn't take care of Aarlong's money! He saved quite the amount." at these words her eyes became belli signs, it seemed some things would never change such as Nami's habit of hoarding money. Zoro coughed then said:

"According to marine law, we have to get up to thirty percent of the money since we defeated Aarlong." Nami deflated at Zoro's words and then said:

"That's the money Aarlong hoarded from the villagers as 'tax money' can't you just let them have it back?" Zoro thought for a bit and Kuina even pushed him with her elbow and she said:

"Of course, of course, we will let the villagers have their money back." but Zoro ignored her elbow push and said:

"With that look in your eyes I thought you were going to take all of the money for yourself but since you want to distribute it to the villagers I guess I can let it be since we already got Aarlong's bounty." The money Zoro now had access to was almost fifty million bellies, all of the cash was on the ship as there was no way he could carry such a high amount, he could do it physically but there was no reason to.

Nami then said:

"Actually the amount of money is quite high could you help me to deliver it to the villagers?" Zoro wanted to refuse but Kuina was of a different opinion and she said:

"Sure we don't have anything to do anyways." Zoro sighed and he decided to take this money delivering job as training. With the help of Zoro's bull-like dinosaur strength, the money immediately found itself in the hands of the villagers Zoro came back alone for the last batch of money and decided to look around the park building, as he got higher and higher he finally found a room where he found tons of maps and a blood-stained pen he shook his head as he looked around then said:

"It seems this is why Nami was forced to join the Aarlong pirates, let's help her vent a bit." Zoro left with the remaining amount of cash and walked outside the park where he unsheathed Yubashiri and shouted:

"Nami come over here I want to show you something!" Nami and Kuina came quickly as Zoro's shout was quite loud when they were met with an Aarlong building cut into two Nami's room was especially affected as the slash was concentrated there, Nami suddenly started crying and Kuina comforted her and asked what was wrong:

"That's the room where Aarlong would put me in for days on end without food and water and make me draw maps for him." She pointed to the destroyed room that was no falling to the ground along with the rest of Aarlong's building, Kuina continued to comfort Nami, she couldn't guess what she went through in her childhood especially at the hands of a racist Fishman like Aarlong, what kind of horrors were inflicted upon a human child?

Zoro approached both of them and said:

"I looked over your maps, I guess that's why Aarlong forced you to join him?" Nami nodded her head then she started to explain about her childhood and how she was good at drawing maps, Aarlong spotted her map-making skills then forced her to join his crew after he killed her mother in front of her eyes. Zoro shook his head at the story, it seemed Nami lived a harder life than him, even though he had no parents and his adoptive grandparents died while he was quite young he couldn't feel the pain of loss at such a young age. Nami suddenly remembered something and she said:

"You don't have a navigator right? You think of going to the grand line right?" Even though she didn't have to anymore, Nami was an adventurous spirit who wouldn't want to remain on this island for the rest of her life, who would be better to follow than a strong swordsman and his girlfriend?

Zoro nodded his head at both questions, Nami puffed up her chest and said:

"I'm not bragging but I could be considered the best navigator in east blue, and I have the inclination of joining you after you defeated Aarlong and freed my village." Zoro nodded his head then said:

"Ok, you are in." Nami's eyes widened at the easy acceptance then asked:

"That's all?" Zoro nodded his head then said:

"Ok say your farewells and we are leaving in a few hours, we finished our job here and you joined us, tell Johnny and Yosaku we are leaving." Nami nodded her head then left for the village. As she was going to leave with Zoro and the others she had to tell her friends and family so they wouldn't get too concerned if she suddenly disappeared without any notice.

Zoro walked towards the ship but he met midway with Johnny and Yosaku who were fidgeting around for some reason, Johnny walked forward when he saw Zoro coming over and he said:

"Big brother Zoro we have something to tell you!" Both of them went to their knees and said in unison:

"We want to remain on this island!" Zoro nodded then said:

"Ok." Then he left them on the spot kneeling as he walked towards the ship, both Johnny and Yosaku were sweating intensely thinking on how Zoro would beat them and drag them to the ship saying that he trained them and that they were ungrateful people, when they opened their eyes they saw Zoro going towards the ship and the words were still left in the air, both of their jaws dropped to the floor at Zoro's nonchalance, he didn't care about them at all!

Zoro stopped for one second and said:

"Don't get the wrong idea, Since you want to stay on this island it's your own decision, I will never impose anything on anyone, do what you want, I and Kuina trained you because we saw some potential in you if you want to retire with the money you made while you were with us, that's on you, anyways I have to go, good luck on staying on the island." Zoro then resumed his walk towards the ship.

Both Johnny and Yosaku were in tears as they shouted to Zoro:

"Thanks for everything big brother Zoro, we will thank big sis Kuina as well when we see her!" Zoro with his back towards them waved at them then gave the both of them a thumbs up. The duo continued to cry their eyes out.

Nami informed everyone that she will leave with the bounty hunters, at first the villagers protested but when they heard that she didn't like being constrained to one island and that she started to taste adventure because of the escapades she had when she needed to collect money for the village they stopped protesting and decided to support her decision. Kuina was making some last-second grocery shopping and she met with Nami on her way to the ship where they both walked back to the ship, out of nowhere a cloud of dust was kicked up as villagers came with a bunch of orange trees with Nojiko, Nami's sister in front and she said out loud:

"Nami don't leave without taking a gift from me!" With the help of the villagers, the trees were planted on the ship, Nami put a hand over her mouth as tears started to leave her eyes but she steeled herself then said:

"Thanks for everything, I love all of you!" The villagers left the ship which then started as Zoro already picked up the anchor and unfurled the sails, it was time to say goodbye to Cocoyashi Village and the Conomi Islands!


	17. One year of bounty hunting

Zoro Kuina and Nami were now on their way towards the great unknown or not.. they were still sailing east-blue waters since they had no map of the grand line nor any information on how the grand line worked, Kuina insisted that they needed to be fully prepared before they left for the grand line even though they grew a lot and east blue was too small for them Nami wasn't that strong and she needed training.

At first, Nami was reluctant to train with them since their training looked quite intense for her but Kuina gave her the flexibility training technique her father gave her when she was a kid, even those were a bit hard for Nami to do but they were doable, even though she didn't do any prior training her running away from pirates and stealing huge sacks of gold helped her stamina and strength, with proper training from Kuina she wouldn't be a burden in the grand line, Kuina also decided to teach her both Haki's when her body was strong enough, she would start with Observation first and then Armament depending on what she was talented but considering her navigation skills she should technically be more talented in Observation.

An innate talent of the person affected their talent in Haki, some people were more talented in Observation due to them being more mentally talented while others were talented in Armament due to their brawnier brains but there was also the minority which was blessed in both like Zoro, he could train both Haki's at an adequate speed faster than average even though he inclined towards Armament.

Of course, a person that specialized in one Haki would have a better proficiency than one who trained in both at the same time but he would still be at a disadvantage due to the balanced way the person who trained in both Haki's, people who train in both Armament and Observation at the same time do split their attention into two things at once but their fighting potential was higher than someone who only specialized in one of them, why?

Because they could both attack and defend with Observation and enhance their attacks with Armament which was adequate and above average while the other person who specialized in one type of Haki would either be unable to hit them due to them lacking enough proficiency in Observation or being able to hit them and doing no damage due to the lack of Armament even though they could dodge their attacks better Observation didn't make you omnipotent, one hit and you would be done if your Armament was below the opponents.

Zoro was one of the minorities who had one of the highest combat potentials thus he had a bright future ahead of him even though he didn't know about it, Kuina tried to follow Zoro's example of training both Haki's at the same time but her talent was in Observation and not Armament so she lagged as she lacked talent in one Haki. At first, Nami didn't know what to do when she was told she would have to be blindfolded and she had to dodge a plank heading her way without even seeing it.

She had quite a few bumps on her head on the day Haki training started, but of course, just like Kuina guessed she was quite blessed in the department of Observation and after half a year she could use it consciously by herself, even though her proficiency was low she did learn how to use Observation.

Zoro and Kuina weren't idle in this half a year, while they also trained Nami they sailed almost the whole east-blue and almost got rid of all of the bounties they could get their hands on, they still, however, didn't find Buggy the Clown Alvida the Iron mace or Don Krieg the foul, there were rumors Don Krieg already left for the grand line with his armada so there was a low chance to catch him in east-blue anymore.

Zoro's savings reached sixty-five million bellies or so, every time Nami saw the money down in the ship her eyes would transform into bellie signs and she would make money angels. Zoro found Nami's behavior to be quite strange but she was a very good navigator so he tried to keep his thoughts to himself. On the navigator business Nami impressed both Zoro and Kuina with her knowledge of navigation, she was even predicting meteorological events almost a few tens of minutes before they could start, Zoro thought that she was basically like a 'witch'.

Another six months passed and Zoro became eighteen while Kuina became twenty, Nami became seventeen, East Blue was almost pirate free but they still couldn't find Buggy the Clown or Iron Mace Alvida, it seemed Zoro's reputation preceded him and they either ran towards the grand line or they knew how to hide well.

Finally, some good news found themselves for Zoro as Nami found some information about a grand line map on an island called Shells Town, the Island was very small that's why it was called a Town, the resident Captain of the marine base there was called Morgan and the map supposedly in his grasp. Nami was very good at information gathering as it was her livelihood when she had to steal from pirates if she got the wrong target there was a chance of her death so her information gathering abilities improved extremely fast with time. Why did it take her one year to gather such information? It was because she was either training half the time or helping the duo navigate the other also the information she got was relatively recent so that meant Morgan got his hands on the map rather recently.

Zoro immediately decided to visit Morgan's base, he didn't know the man's personality and even if he knew he didn't care much, he decided to get the map, with his money he could also try to get a new ship as the one he had wasn't good enough for the grand line. With the speed of a motorized boat, the motor being Zoro pushing the ship from behind they reached Shells Town.

The trio walked down the streets of Shells Town and they talked, every time Morgan's name was said the people of the town would jump up like they saw a ghost, Zoro shook his head at their actions and said:

"It seems this Morgan guy is quite the corrupt individual." Nami nodded her head at Zoro's words as she said:

"This is the reaction the villagers would have at Aarlong's name, what kind of marine acts like this?" Morgan acted like Aarlong by Nami's words, which meant he taxed the villagers of the island every month rather steeply and he also threatened them.

As they walked towards the marine base they saw a brown haired girl with her hair done in pigtails put a ladder over the marine's base wall and climb it there in the middle of the execution grounds was a straw hat-wearing young lad with dark hair and dark eyes who wore a red vest and blue short pants, on his feet he wore sandals, he was tied to the execution post and he seemed to be extremely malnourished as he was quite skinny. His eyes widened in delight and surprise as he saw the little girl who immediately fed him some rice balls which he gulped down like they were heavenly nectar. A pink-haired small boy with blue-rimmed glasses who wore the marine uniform also came towards the dark-haired buy with a giant hunk of cooked meat that he dragged behind him.

The boy tied to the execution post immediately gulped in the hunk of meat like it was a glass of water and he wanted to burp but the pink-haired boy put a hand over his mouth and indicated with his finger that he should shut up.

The straw hat-wearing boy nodded his head and put on a serious look on his face. Fortunately, the duo of the boy and girl escaped before a blonde-haired man who wore a purple suit and purple shoes came in with two marines and started to belittle the tied boy and they even started to torture him by punching him and kicking him, but the boy seemed like he didn't feel any pain.

The blonde-haired man sneered at the boy immunity and said:

"Is it true you are a rubber man Monkey D. Luffy?" There was no other explanation as no blunt damage could be done to the boy known as Monkey D. Luffy but Luffy sneered and he said:

"Yes, I'm a rubber man how many times do I have to tell you that?" He wanted to stretch his cheek to prove his point and he did as his arm suddenly elongated from it's tied position and he stretched his cheek at the same time, it seemed he didn't do this before as the blonde-haired man suddenly fell with a scared look on his face as he screamed like a little girl and ran away:

"MONSTER!" The marines followed after him both disturbed from the show Luffy gave them as they shouted towards the running blonde-haired man:

"Master Helmeppo please don't run you might get hurt!"

Zoro was interested in the boy, it seemed he ate one of those cursed devil fruits that Koshiro taught him about, it was um, Zoro tried to remember what kind of fruit the boy ate when Kuina interrupted his thoughts with her words:

"That kid ate a paramecia devil fruit, he is a rubber man!" Zoro nodded his head, it seemed Kuina still remembered her father's teachings about devil fruits, Zoro didn't care much about it because he already knew Haki and devil fruit users were vegetables ready to be cut by him no matter what type they were.

He didn't know the story of the kid, but the brown-haired girl and the pink-haired marine boy should know, right?

He seemed like an interesting guy. Zoro's intuition told him so, Zoro decided to not break marine law and go towards their prisoner and decided to follow the two little presences that were scurrying towards the local bar and restaurant of the town.

With Nami and Kuina in tow, they met with the boy and little girl at the bar where they first ordered some food and drinks before Zoro's intimidating face almost gave the boy a heart attack when he was asked about Luffy's situation, the little girl seemed oblivious to Zoro's scary face that he made unconsciously, of course to Kuina and Nami that was Zoro's normal face as they saw it every day and it didn't seem particularly scarier than normal.

The little girl introduced herself as Ririka and she started to tell Luffy's story:

"That guy saved me from Helmeppo's evil dog! Helmeppo is the son of Morgan the captain that's instated here and he does whatever he wants! He eats for free everywhere belittles the villagers and sometimes even makes his marine lackeys beat them!"

"I hate that stupid prick, one day he came with a dog who almost ate me! Fortunately, Luffy and Coby came in time so I wasn't eaten Luffy clobbered the wolf down and was ready to beat the snot out of Helmeppo but Helmeppo threatened him with me and my mother, he said that he would kill both of us!"

She seemed to get thirsty as the story was quite long, Kuina gave the girl a glass of water and afterward she continued the story:

"Luffy didn't want us to die due to him, and Helmeppo gave him a challenge saying that if he stayed on the execution grounds tied to the post for one month without food and water he would let him go and excuse us for our 'impertinence', it's been two days and he already can't handle it anymore! We had to sneak food to him for more than five times a day and fortunately up till now we weren't caught, this guy Coby *she pointed to the unconscious Coby* has already joined the marine's as it's his dream or something, he seems like a lousy marine in my opinion." Zoro, Kuina, and Nami nodded their heads at Ririka's story it seemed that the kid was a good guy who got into trouble due to the corrupt marine.

He was in luck for today since they had business with Morgan, Zoro decided to free him since he was a good guy. Luffy was still tied to the post in the execution grounds when suddenly the trio appeared with Coby and Ririka in tow. Coby was excited now as he looked towards Zoro and Kuina, it seemed he recognized who they were he was scared at first but he realized they could be a great help to their situation.

Zoro nodded his head as Luffy looked at him then suddenly all of Luffy's bindings were undone! Luffy massaged his wrist and cracked his neck while doing some stretching exercises then he looked at Zoro and said:

"Join my crew!" Zoro's eyes widened at the guy's shamelessness, he just saved him and the first thing he said was join my crew? no, thank you or anything?

Kuina started laughing at Zoro's expression then she said:

"Zoro I like him, he reminds me of you!" Zoro scoffed then said:

"How does he remind you of me?" Kuina shook her shoulders and said:

"You both are uh... special?" Zoro was ready to give Kuina a piece of his mind but stopped as Luffy suddenly started to stretch himself, literally! suddenly he was on the roof of the marine building destroying the newly erected statue of Morgan in all his glory!

Morgan shouted something about rubber brats and then the both of them fell from the roof, Morgan got up and Zoro observed the marine Captain, he had an iron jaw and an ax instead of left arm, he wore the captain coat and had normal blue marine pants and boots but no undershirt so you could see his chest, he had a crew cut and his hair was blonde, he stood at almost two meters and twenty centimeters tall!

Luffy shouted towards Morgan with an angry tone of voice:

"Moran you tied me for a long time! If it wasn't for Coby and Ririka I would have died of starvation up till now, its time to beat your ass! and your son's Helephanto too!" Morgan's head veins were bulging like they were ready to explode as he shouted towards Luffy:

"You dumb pirate, I Captain Morgan, Captain of the marines shall catch you and execute you immediately! You destroyed my great statue and insulted me, a Captain of the marines? It's time for you to die!" Unfortunately for Morgan Luffy just had his meal even though he was still hungry he was way stronger than Morgan by a large mile.

Suddenly both of Luffy's hands stretched behind him as he ran towards Morgan while shouting:

"Gum Gum... Bazooka!" Both of Luffy's outstretched arms snapped back and hit Morgan directly in the chest rupturing his internal organs and making him faint directly, Luffy was especially angry after he got tied to that post for two days and he didn't hold back at all, immediately mortally injuring the marine Captain. Suddenly out of the marine base came tens of marines who instead of trying to shoot at Luffy threw their caps into the air and started celebrating!

Luffy didn't know what to say about their celebration but Zoro and the others understood them. Coby and Ririka joined in the celebration while Helmeppo tried to make himself unseen and run away but he was caught by one of his 'guards' and scolded severely, from now on he would become a marine errand boy like Coby was currently.

Luffy's stomach started growling like a lion's who didn't eat in months even though he ate some tens of minutes previously. This boy's appetite wasn't a joke at all! Ririka decided to invite Luffy to her mother's restaurant so they could show him their hospitality. Zoro indicated to Nami with his eyes that it was a good time to take the map. Unfortunately for Zoro Nami came back empty-handed, well not totally as she came back with a letter that said:

"Buggy was here and he flashy stole your map, fool!" Zoro crumbled the letter and shook his head, that clown fool stole the map he needed for the grand line, where he could find him? Hopefully, he would be lucky from now on. And he would be since he met Luffy the luckiest guy on the planet.

Zoro decided to follow Luffy to the restaurant, his eyes widened as he saw Luffy pile up plates of food like a tower, he was eating like a steam train who needed coal! The food would just enter his mouth and disappear!

Zoro decided to wait until he finished the food to talk with him, after a while he finished eating and his stomach bulged quite a lot, he looked like a ball! Zoro felt bad for Ririka's mother as she gave away all that food for free, Kuina directly asked:

"How much does he owe you? I can pay for him." Kuina had her stash of cash different from Zoro's she made more than ten million herself, of course, most of the money gone to Zoro and his ship fund but she also saved money for herself when she would need them, they were also the money they used for resupplies and other things.

The mother of Ririka an older looking version of her daughter shook her head and she said:

"You don't have to pay for him, even though he ate quite a lot, it's the best reward we can give him as he took care of that menace known as Morgan." She spits down at the mention of Morgan's name.

Zoro nodded his head but Luffy suddenly appeared near him bloated as he was and said in a serious tone of voice:

"Join my crew, you are strong and I need strong guys in my crew!" Then he pointed towards Kuina and Nami:

"You guys join too!" Kuina would follow Zoro wherever he went so if he decided to join the Luffy guy she would just follow him, as for Nami she didn't like pirates but if her savior decided to become one she would follow, the Luffy boy wasn't that bad even though he was pirate so she could stomach being a pirate under him.

Zoro wanted to tell him no he didn't want to join him but a marine came from outside and he said:

"You guys are pirates, right? You have to go, we are very grateful for what you did but you have to go."

Zoro wanted to say something but the marine didn't let him:

"It's your pirate ship that's waiting on the dock right? The one with the mermaid figurehead?" Zoro wanted to refute again but the marine continued:

"Please leave we don't want to contact the headquarters, you guys are alright pirates, in my opinion, please just leave ok?"

Zoro finally snapped and said:

"We three aren't pirates!" the marine looked over at Zoro Kuina and Nami then shook his head at said:

"You were on the site when the incident happened and you helped the straw hat-wearing boy so we can only make you accomplices in our report, I'm sorry even if you want to or not you are pirates now."

Zoro almost wanted to take his swords and cut the dumb marine into pieces, he didn't want to become a pirate for this reason! He only saved the Luffy guy cause he seemed interesting and now he became a pirate due to it? SO DUMB!

Luffy smiled and laughed then said:

"Shishishi, since you are a pirate now why don't you join me?" Zoro was defeated spiritually so he decided to indulge the fool and said:

"Ok I will join you but you can't give me any orders, also if you would block my way towards my dream I will cut you down like an animal!" Luffy's smile widened at the mention of a dream and he said:

"My dream is to become the King of the pirates, what's yours?"

Zoro chuckled the kid got a big dream alright, he could also feel with his Haki that he wasn't a slouch, he could maybe even make him use fifty percent of his power on him! Considering strength, Zoro still had the advantage of Haki and swords being the Luffy's weakness, but in pure strength alone Luffy was half as strong as Zoro, which was quite monstrous combined with his rubber body.

Zoro said:

"I'm going to become the world's greatest swordsman!" Kuina added in herself:

"And I'm going to become the world's greatest swordswoman!" Kuina nudged Nami in so she could say her dream, Nami blushed and said:

"I'm going to draw a map of the world!" Luffy continued laughing as he said:

"This is a good crew!" Zoro shook his head, even though Luffy was captain of the newly created 'crew' his crew wouldn't even listen to him, they would most likely listen to Zoro, Luffy was a figurehead. Of course, his strength wasn't low but Zoro was just stronger, Zoro doubted Luffy could even beat Kuina. Of course, Luffy could beat Nami even though she got stronger and faster and learned Observation Haki, Luffy's monstrous strength and rubber body wasn't something Nami could deal with at all, she supported, after all, she was, not a fighter.

Luffy immediately found himself accommodated on Zoro's ship he took the figurehead to be his place and stood there waiting for the ship to start and go wherever the wind would take them.

They already resupplied and all they had to do now was find Buggy and get the grand line map. When Luffy heard this he just said two words:

"Oh ok." He didn't seem to care that much, Zoro then realized that his new 'captain' wasn't smart, like at all.

Nami decided to navigate towards the nearest island, maybe Buggy decided to dock there, after he got the grand line map and party his head out due to happiness, of course, now that they were near Luffy their luck increased by more than one thousand percent.

So with their luck, they would surely find Buggy and the map on the next island known as Orange Town.


	18. Buggy the clown

After they started sailing a few hours in Luffy finally left the figurehead of the ship and started to aimlessly walk around the ship, even though he wasn't that smart Luffy realized that even though Zoro joined his crew he had no power over him, even though he was a captain in name all of his crewmates saw Zoro as the captain, there was nothing he could do about this besides getting stronger than Zoro, Luffy wasn't one who would train in the literal sense of training, he grew stronger from very unconventional training that his grandfather put him through, combined with the sparring with his brothers when he was young made him what he was today, even in the paradise his strength wouldn't fail him much but the new world would thoroughly destroy him till nothing was left behind.

Even though Luffy was extremely strong physically he was lacking in everything else, technique, Haki and the improvements on his devil fruit which he wasn't using it at its full strength, Zoro saw some potential in Luffy but he didn't decide to train him due to him not having enough trust in him, he just met the kid, while his heart was in a good place as he helped Ririka out of her predicament and his dream was big Zoro didn't trust him as the time he was with him was too low, even Nami sailed with both Kuina and Zoro for one year already so he could say that he understood her quite a bit.

Luffy walked towards the kitchen to get himself a snack, which meant that Luffy wanted to eat half the supplies or more when Zoro saw him going to the kitchen he immediately stopped his training and appeared in front of Luffy in a burst of speed, he saw how much food Luffy ate at the restaurant, he couldn't let him eat the same amount or they would remain without supplies in a very short while.

Luffy looked at Zoro with a questioning look on his face and he asked:

"What's wrong, Zoro?"

Zoro shook his head at the question then said:

"You want to eat right 'captain' ?" The tone Zoro used to say Captain wasn't that respectful but Luffy didn't catch on it as he was quite the simple guy who couldn't see undertones or facial expressions, he gave Zoro a toothy grin and said:

"Well, I just wanted a snack." Zoro nodded his head then entered the kitchen and came out with two apples which he gave to Luffy then said:

"This is your snack for the next few hours before we all are going to eat launch together." Luffy eyes widened as he saw only two apples and he asked:

"Just these two apples?" Zoro nodded his head then said:

"I know you want to eat more but we have limited supplies and you should know that everyone needs to eat on this ship 'captain' we have to rationalize our food till we can get a cook who will do it better, do you understand Luffy?" Luffy grumbled something under his breath but then nodded his head, even though he was dumb he wasn't that dumb, both Ace and Sabo scolded him a lot due to his eating habits and sometimes fights ensued between them when they couldn't share the prey they hunted on Mount Kolobo.

Luffy ate the apples in two mouthfuls then didn't go near the kitchen again, that was on the surface as an arm started to stretch towards the supplies stealthily unfortunately for him Zoro's Observation Haki was almost always active these days so when his arm was near the supplies Kitetsu was immediately found over the hand if Luffy would touch the supplies the sword would go down and his hand would be cut off, Luffy's senses were superior to even animals so he knew he was caught red-handed, his arm immediately snapped back to its normal lengths and he laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head, Zoro reappeared near Luffy and he said while shaking his head:

"Don't do that again ok? I wouldn't want to make a mutiny in the first days of you being the captain, Luffy." Luffy gulped, Zoro was a scary guy, even though he didn't have Observation Haki Luffy could somehow feel that Zoro was way stronger than him, it was just like his grandfather, he could feel a presence that he couldn't contend against in Zoro.

Zoro got back to his training as he started to lift some giant weights while he tempered his Armament and Observation Haki, Luffy eyes widened as he felt the power of armament coursing through Zoro's body, this feeling was eerily similar to his grandfather's fist of love technique that made him a rubber man feel pain from blunt attacks!

Luffy approached Zoro slowly and he asked:

"Hey Zoro, What kind of technique are you training?"

Luffy was always interested in his grandfathers marine techniques but his grandfather said that he would never train him in the techniques unless he promised he would become a marine, Luffy always said he would become the pirate king after he met Shanks so his grandfather never trained him in any techniques besides the body tempering training and survival training he gave him, Garp never trained Luffy in anything else due to his affiliation with the pirate faction.

Zoro looked away from his training as he saw Luffy approaching him and asking him about his training, the look on his face showed that he saw Haki somewhere before, Zoro was intrigued, this straw-hat wearing kid knew someone who knew how to use Haki? That meant he knew someone from the new world as paradise thoroughly lacked people with knowledge in Haki.

Zoro asked Luffy with an inquiring tone:

"Do you recognize the technique that I'm using?"

Luffy nodded his head at Zoro then said with a reminiscing look on his face:

"My grandfather used to hit me on the head every time I said I would be a pirate and I would get the same feeling from him that I get from you now."

Zoro's eyes narrowed at Luffy's words, his grandfather must be someone important then, what kind of pirate boss was he? Zoro decided to inquire directly from him:

"Who's your grandfather?"

Luffy responded easily not knowing of his grandfather's reputation at all:

"Monkey D Garp, marine."

Kuina gasped as she stopped her training then looked at Luffy with wide eyes, Nami who was inside working on her east-blue map also heard Luffy's words and she almost messed up her map in shock, Garp was a living legend!

But Zoro didn't know much about Garp and he asked:

"Is he supposed to be famous?"

Luffy started picking his nose then said with a neutral tone:

"Eh, I don't know."

Kuina shook her head, the man's grandson didn't even know about his reputation, what did he even teach him?

Kuina approached Zoro and started explaining Garp's feats to Zoro:

"Zoro, Monkey D Garp is a Marine vice admiral with a great reputation, it's said he with the current fleet admiral caught the pirate king! You should know what that entails right?"

Zoro's eyes widened at Kuina's words, the pirate king wasn't any pushover, Gold Roger had countless stories told about him around all of the blues and the grand line both in the new world as well as paradise. His strength was legendary even dwarfing the world's strongest man Edward Newgate also known as WhiteBeard, Garp catching him showed that he was on par with him even though he had help from the fleet admiral Sengoku.

Zoro then asked with a questioning tone:

"Since your grandfather is such a great marine why didn't you become a marine?"

Luffy's finger never left his nose as if he was digging for gold and bellies in there and he responded:

"Never liked the marines, too many rules I want to be free! Also, the uniforms are ugly!"

Zoro sweatdropped at the uniforms comment but he did understand Luffy's dislike of the marines, Zoro himself wouldn't want to join the marines if he had to decide between the marines and the pirates he would take the pirates freedom any day, he didn't know much about the world government but he knew that it wasn't any good as he saw the corruption of the marines through his travels in the east-blue the most recent one being Captain Morgan, he treated the villagers like animals he could harvest and no one did anything about it because he was strong and a marine, which meant he was a 'good guy'.

Zoro's view of the marines deteriorated with time, he didn't look favorably on the pirates either as he saw what kind of atrocities they were capable off, but Zoro didn't see the world only in black and white as he was a man who traveled quite a bit, he realized that not all marines are good and not all pirates are bad, he found a bunch of pirates who didn't even want to be pirates but like himself were accused of being pirates due to some dumb reason and they had to stick with it. Even now he wondered if the headquarters decided to give him a bounty yet, considering how many high bounties he cleared in east-blue.

Zoro stopped wondering a few seconds later, he didn't truly want to train Luffy as he didn't have his trust yet but he decided to inform him about Haki as there was no problem in it:

"What I'm training right now is known as Armament Haki, it can strengthen your attacks and increase your defense at the same time while also bypassing devil fruit defenses, here let me show you, even though you should already know what it feels like."

Zoro suddenly slapped Luffy over the head as a giant bump appeared on his head and he clutched it while shouting:

"What the hell Zoro, it hurts!"

Zoro chuckled then he said:

"Yes this is what I meant by bypassing devil fruit defenses, you are a rubber man so normal hits shouldn't hurt right?"

Luffy nodded his head as he seemingly realized what Zoro was talking about then he asked directly:

"How can I learn this Haki thing, it seems useful!"

Zoro shook his head at Luffy question which made Luffy cock his head like a dog:

"I'm sorry Luffy but I can't teach you yet, we just met and you don't have my trust, trust is an important thing between people and you haven't earned mine yet, even though you are my supposed Captain you are weaker than me currently and to be frank with you I don't respect you, then you would ask yourself, why did I join you?."

Zoro continued:

"I'm not sure why I just feel like you are different than other people that I met during my east-blue travels, you are also quite strong even though you are weaker than me I guess you could survive the first part of the grand line by yourself, well if you don't starve or lose yourself at sea strength-wise you would be ok, this is by approximation of what my teacher taught me on how the grand line is like."

Luffy nodded his head at Zoro's words, he wasn't offended by them at all, might make right, even though he wasn't intelligent he still knew about this type of stuff as his grandfather imprinted this type of teaching in him since he was a little kid below seven years old, no one would respect you if you weren't as strong if not stronger than them, he could feel that both Kuina and Zoro were stronger than him by quite a high deal the only one he had a chance at beating was Nami, but Nami wasn't a fighter she was the navigator of the ship so it didn't matter.

Luffy realized that to truly became the Captain of Zoro and the others he would need to start training, he didn't like that Zoro didn't trust him, weren't they friends already?

Luffy asked:

"Zoro aren't we friends, why don't you trust me?"

Zoro shook his head and said:

"We could be said to be friendly acquaintances at best, we know very little of each other besides our dreams, I can be called your savior since I helped you out at the marine base, even though you might have escaped and defeated Morgan by yourself I still helped you out there which is a fact."

Luffy nodded his head, suddenly he took a thinking look but his face started to redden and steam was almost coming out of his ears, Zoro was perturbed by his look but his jaw almost hit the ground at Luffy's next words:

"Man thinking is hard, I know, I will just train and get stronger so you can trust me better Zoro!"

Thinking hurt for this guy? What was his brain made of? Oh yeah right it was made of rubber.

Zoro sighed as he got back to his training, Luffy wanted to mimic Zoro's training so while Zoro bought himself some weights Luffy decided to train with the heavy anchor, Luffy's muscles bulged out as he took the giant anchor and started to lift it up and down to train. Zoro chuckled at Luffy's attempts to copy his training but he didn't stop him, it was good he wanted to train maybe he could even catch up to him one day.

After a few hours of training they ate launch, after training Luffy's appetite was especially high but Zoro still gave him only the needed amount without letting Luffy eat more, Luffy was a glutton that ate more than he needed due to his rubber stomach that could stretch by quite a lot, he ate more than he needed due to his love of food, of course, he could turn the excess food into nutrients that could heal his injuries somewhat or restore his stamina in needed times but he didn't know how to do that yet.

The quartet continued their training as they sailed along to Orange Town, after a few days of sailing they met with a trio of wandering buggy pirates which they immediately beat the living daylights off and stole their treasure then left them stranded. Since Zoro became a pirate he couldn't turn in bounties anymore so to get the money he had to resort to thievery from other pirates, having more money never hurt anyone especially if you could also protect it.

After a few more hours after they met the trio, they finally reached Orange Town where they were met with a sight of destruction, a giant red cannonball with Buggy's symbol on it destroyed tens of houses with its flashy explosion, Zoro didn't really like needless destruction as there was no reason to it.

Luffy's 'crew' docked the ship and walked on the streets of Orange Town, Zoro already locked on the Buggy pirates with his Observation Haki all three of them did, Kuina and Nami too but they waited for Zoro to give the command, Luffy was ready to wander in Orange Town trying to find Buggy. Zoro put a hand over his shoulder then said:

"Follow me Luffy I already know where Buggy is, we will make short work of him get the grand line map then leave Orange Town, Ok?"

Luffy nodded his head, he could only comply with Zoro's plans as he wasn't a plan guy he didn't particularly care either as long as he sailed and had adventures towards his goal of becoming the pirate king, that's why he became a pirate in the first place, for the sake of adventure! Shanks's stories about his adventures inspired Luffy on trying to become the king of pirates.

They walked towards the bar of the town where all of the Buggy pirates where partying Zoro decided that it wasn't time for an introduction and such, he unsheathed Yubashiri and Kitetsu and a peculiar aura started to appear around him as his muscles started to bulge out and increase in mass, he said his technique out loud:

"Two sword style: Two gorillas slash!" The town bar was cut into two like a cross then collapsed like a card house, Luffy's eyes widened as stars appeared on them and he said to Zoro:

"Wow Zoro that was so cool!"

Zoro was embarrassed that was the first time someone so genuinely thought of him as being cool, Luffy was a pure guy who couldn't lie at all so his feeling was all over his face, he genuinely thought that what Zoro did was very cool!

Out of the rubble, a cough was heard it seemed there was a survivor!

Buggy got out of the rubble, unfortunately, he was the only survivor and that was because of his devil fruit, Zoro didn't know about his devil fruit so he didn't imbue his slashes with Haki thus he only took the brunt of the damage of a building falling on him instead of a stray slash slashing him in pieces as his crewmates did, the slashes combined with a building falling on them sealed most of the Buggy pirates fates.

Buggy got out of the rubble coughed some blood and he shouted like a cat that's tail was stepped on:

"Which flashy bastard did this!"

Zoro narrowed his eyes as he muttered:

"This guy survived whatever, let's cut him into pieces."

Zoro threw a flying slash at Buggy who was still shouting while he said:

"One sword style: one hundred and sixty phoenix pound cannon."

He used Yubashiri for the flying slash as it was very light and he could execute a flying slash faster than with Kitetsu, he wanted to finish everything fast as he already told Nami she could go to take the treasures and the map from Buggy's safe.

Suddenly Buggy was cut into two from the waist by flying slash but there was no blood!

Suddenly his torso started to hover there as his attention was taken by the direction the flying slash came over, even though he was a weakling Buggy was still a veteran that lived on Gold Roger's ship so he knew what a flying slash meant, this was no two-bit swordsman he was against!

Fortunately his fruit countered swordsmen that's what he thought but Zoro already realized that he was fighting a devil fruit users and unfortunately for Buggy that meant he was done for.

Suddenly a dark glint appeared on Zoro's swords as Armament Haki covered them, Buggy's eyes left their sockets as he saw Zoro using the advanced form of Armament Haki which was Hardening, only someone with above-average mastery in Armament could use Hardening!

What kind of swordsman who knew Haki would still stay in east-blue? Buggy thought but his thoughts were suddenly cut as he looked down at his throat, blood overflowed from it as the final words he would hear in this life were heard from behind him:

"Armament Two sword style: Sudden decapitation version two!" Buggy's painted face turned deathly pale as the blood left his body his red nose finally dropped from his face showing a normal face as he muttered to himself:

"Was I wrong Shanks?" He plummeted to the ground like a sack of potatoes his slashed half fusing back to normal making him whole again but his head slid off his neck.

Buggy the clown was dead! A few minutes later Nami came with a sack of gold and bellies with the map of the grand line in her hand, her eyes widened at the sight of Buggy's corpse but then she remembered how Aarlong ended then shook her head, Zoro was quite the brutal guy.

Zoro took Buggy's head and wrapped it in a bunch of cloth while he put his red nose back on his normal one then he threw it at Kuina:

"I might be a pirate who will get a bounty soon but you don't have a bounty, cash in this head at the next marine base, it should be fifteen million bellies right?"

Kuina nodded her head at Zoro's question, Buggy's bounty was indeed fifteen million and now it was theirs to take. Luffy didn't have to do anything as he twiddled his thumbs, he felt left out of the conversation as well, it was like he wasn't supposed to be here in the first place, he didn't know why he felt like this but he decided to ignore this feeling.

They embarked the ship and decided to get towards the next marine base where they cashed in Buggy's bounty, the marine who was the 'boss' of the base looked at Buggy's severed head multiple times before to check its authenticity when he saw that it was the real deal he immediately got the cash and gave it to Kuina, someone being able to kill a monster with a devil fruit was even a bigger monster!

Unknowingly to Zoro one of the apples on his ship transformed into a pineapple with strange swirls around it, it's color was a deep orange with a tuft of green as it's leaves on the top of the pineapple looking fruit.

Luffy almost ate the fruit the first time he saw it but Zoro stopped him immediately as he realized it was a devil fruit!

If he didn't stop Luffy from eating it in time he might have exploded due to the conflicting nature of devil fruits.

When Zoro explained to Luffy that he almost died Luffy sweated like a pig in a sauna and he decided to never try to eat strange fruits again without the opinion of a second party, the second party being Zoro of course.

Zoro sighed as he looked at the devil fruit, being honest with himself he felt that this devil fruit was useful only for the first part of the grand line as the second part would just destroy it, while making your limbs detachable was useful it wasn't that useful to him or anyone else on his ship so he decided he would sell the devil fruit when he got to League Town, maybe Tashigi could help.

But he still decided to ask Nami and Tashigi if they wanted the devil fruit and the responses were, of course, both negative, Nami didn't want the power as it didn't suit her or her occupation while Kuina said that she didn't want any type of devil fruit power. Kuina and Zoro were on the same wavelength regarding devil fruits, Zoro himself would never eat one as he enjoyed swimming too much and the weakness sometimes didn't make up for the power.

Luffy's stomach growled but unfortunately, they were finally out of rations, but fortunately, they were near a habited island where they could get their hands on some food, Zoro found out there was something strange happening on the island, however as he felt that there were a lot of 'voices' that his observation Haki felt that they were just disappearing they were going quiet for some reason, he thus realized that the Island was under attack!

The Island was called Syrup Island, it was a small island with nothing particularly interesting about it why would it be attacked by pirates?

Zoro decided that it was time to find out, even though he wasn't a hero he wouldn't ignore people being hurt while he was around, that was how he was, Luffy himself was on the same wavelength as him, Nami and Kuina as well, when Nami and Kuina finally felt the situation both of them immediately wanted to help.

So they started to sail at extremely quick speeds due to Zoro becoming a motor for the ship. Time to save one more island and this island had a surprise for them as well, a good one, a ship sized surprise.


	19. Kuro of the thousand plans

Zoro could feel the hundreds of voices fighting and tugging at each other, the weaker voices were starting to get silenced ever so slowly, he couldn't wait anymore it would be faster to swim to the island at this rate if he waited till the ship sailed there everyone would have died already!

Suddenly Luffy stretched his arms he was ready to launch himself to the island, Kuina and Zoro already talked about the situation on the island and Luffy heard all about it, he didn't like what was happening over there so he decided to use his devil fruit powers to get there faster. Zoro jumped near him and grabbed him by the shoulders, Luffy looked at Zoro but Zoro just nodded his head.

Luffy smiled then like a slingshot, threw himself and Zoro towards the island, unfortunately, Luffy wasn't big enough to carry more than one person on his body so Kuina and Nami had to sail the ship towards the island.

Luffy and Zoro reached the island fairly easily with the help of Luffy's gum-gum rocket technique, on the shore of the island they could see a giant galleon ship with the figurehead of a black cat, the whole ship was black and no one was in sight but Zoro could feel the presences of the pirates on the island.

Zoro told Luffy:

"Follow me Luffy there are a lot of people here and we will need to split up to get all of them Ok?"

Luffy nodded his head, they would split up near the village and go in two different directions where they would take care of the pirates, the island wasn't big and the village had two parts in it, the outer layer of the village and the inner layer, the inner layer had the huge white mansion in it while the outer layer had the normal houses.

Zoro decided to focus on the outer layer since there were more pirates there and he was better to take care of them with his swordsmanship techniques, while Luffy also had some techniques that could be useful in this situation it would be better for him to go in the inner layer Zoro himself was enough to take care of the grunts.

Zoro suddenly appeared in front of a pirate and seconds later the pirates head left its shoulders, the cry of children attracted Zoro's situation as a bunch of pirates were now attacking three children who wore a tomato, radish, and garlic hats on their heads Zoro made his way quickly over to the children and dispatched of the pirates, the children were crying and scared but they approached Zoro immediately and said:

"Green haired big bro please save Captain Usopp!" Zoro didn't have time for their explanation so he asked just one thing:

"Tell me where he is!"

The children immediately told Zoro the location of Usopp:

"He is at the mansion, please Green Haired big bro help him, he was already injured by the villagers previously and now he is gone to help Kaya!"

Zoro didn't inquire about what happened to Usopp to make him anger the villagers nor who this Kaya person was, he could feel a relatively strong person now clashing with Luffy's presence as a weaker presence voice was slowly but surely starting to quiet.

He didn't know what to tell the children, he wasn't a doctor, even if Luffy beat the strong presence the Usopp guy had a very high chance of dying, he decided to not alarm the children and he started running towards the mansion, along the way he took care of all of the grunts and a weirdo with heart-shaped glasses and a cowboy outfit who wanted to hypnotize him, unfortunately for him Zoro's will was extremely strong and his hypnotism had no effect on him, the weirdo wasn't alone as a skinny and fat man who wore cat outfits were with him.

The duo wasn't strong so Zoro easily took care of them but still that took time thus he was a bit delayed, he still arrived quickly at the mansion where he found a very angry Luffy duking it out with a man with slicked-back dark hair and glasses who wore a butler uniform and had cat gloves with sharp iron claws on his hands, the man scoffed at Zoro appearance and said out loud:

"Hmph, another fool came to disrupt my plan but no matter, I will take care of you after I finish the straw-hat wearing kid!"

Luffy shouted:

"YOU DAMN KURO GUY, USOPP IS DYING I WILL KICK YOUR ASS!"

The man known as Usopp was quite away from the fight he was being nursed by a weak looking blonde-haired young woman, it seemed she had some medical knowledge as she was taking care of the claw wounds on Usopp's chest but it seemed he lost quite the high amount of blood as his face was pale.

Usopp was an average height skinny young man who wore brown overalls he had brown skin and a big nose he also had some goggles and a bandana strapped to his head, his hair seemed pretty bushy and he also had a white sash tied around his waist, he wore some brown shoes on his feet.

The blonde-haired young woman wore a simple white dress and she didn't look that healthy herself, Zoro was no doctor but he was sure she was sick of something.

Zoro didn't waste more than a few seconds looking at the duo, while Usopp was still in critical danger at least he was being taken care of by the young woman.

Zoro unsheathed his swords and he was ready to take care of Kuro quickly so he could finish with this unexpected adventure he didn't ask for.

But suddenly Luffy shouted towards Zoro:

"Zoro, no help! I need to take care of this bastard myself!"

Kuro snorted at Luffy's words seemingly thinking that there was no way the straw-hat wearing boy was able to take care of him at all. Luffy was very angry because he knew Usopp's father and he talked about Usopp when he was younger, Usopp's father Yasopp even suggested for Usopp to join Luffy's crew so Luffy thought of Usopp like some distant family member he never saw, Luffy took good care of his family so he became extremely enraged at Usopp's situation.

Luffy suddenly started to stretch his arm and roll it making it look like a spring, he quickly brought the arm on Kuro at high speeds making him unable to dodge the attack so he could only block it with his cat gloves, Luffy shouted out his attack's name as it collided with Kuro's gloves:

"Gum-Gum Rifle!" The attack hit Kuro head-on and then Luffy's arm unfurled making Kuro spin like a top wheel as he crashed into the mansion Kuro coughed out blood as he got out of the mansion walls and he muttered to himself:

"Its time to use that technique."

Kuro took a stance as he put both of his hands down and started swaying suddenly he disappeared from where he was and slashes started to appear around him and on the walls of the mansion.

Luffy's eyes widened as the slashes were random, he made sure to protect Kaya and Usopp as he approached the slashes direction, Luffy was slashed on his arm and a bit of blood started trickling down, Luffy smirked to himself as he suddenly grabbed at the air and he caught Kuro by the shoulders!

Kuro eyes widened behind his glasses as he said:

"How how did you find me?"

Luffy wasn't in the mood to respond to him as his neck stretched backward at fast speeds:

"Gum-Gum bell!"

His head snapped forwards and it met with Kuro's, Kuro's head snapped backward due to the impact as Luffy's skull was extremely hard, due to his anger Luffy put forth all of his strength in the headbutt, Kuro wasn't that physically strong so the impact from Luffy's headbutt snapped his neck like a twig effectively killing him.

Zoro was impressed by Luffy's battle tactics, his instincts were extremely good already what if he taught him Observation Haki on top? But he still didn't feel that he trusted him enough, he respected Luffy's decision of taking care of Kuro alone, even though he didn't know the details of what happened it should be something personal as he never saw Luffy get angry before, it should be a serious reason.

Zoro approached Luffy and patted him on the shoulder as he said:

"Good job there Luffy."

Luffy nodded his head and rushed towards Kaya as he said:

"How is Usopp?"

Usopp chuckled as his pale face trembled and he said:

"Captain Usopp is ok, thanks for helping me here Luffy *cough* *cough* hopefully I will live."

Kaya's eyes widened at Usopps words as she said with a trembling voice:

"You have to live Usopp-san, who else would tell me such great stories if you would die?"

Luffy immediately got a little closer and he said:

"Usopp, your father is Yasopp right?"

Usopp eyes widened as he asked:

"You know my father?"

Luffy smiled as he started to tell stories of Yasopp and his accuracy at shooting, suddenly mid-story Usopp started to cough out blood Kaya immediately wanted to see what was wrong with him but Usopp put a hand over at Kaya indicating that she didn't have to do anything and said:

"I think I won't come out of this alive *cough*" A smile was on his face as he said that, he coughed a bit more than said:

"I'm happy that my father is living out his dream as one of the officers of Red-haired Shanks one of the four emperors, it's just that.." Here his smile turned stiff and he frowned:

"It's just that he left me and my mother alone and I.. *cough* *cough* I..."

Usopp's hands started to tremble and his face turned even paler, something was wrong, the cuts weren't that deep why was he coughing out so much blood?

Kaya immediately went over and reexamined the cuts at first glance when she examined them at first they looked like normal cuts which she bandaged but now something purple was seeping out of the bandages, it was poison!

Kaya's eyes widened in horror it seemed that Kuro's claws were laced in poison! She looked towards Luffy he should have been poisoned as well but he looked alright, it seemed Luffy's immune system towards poison was quite high.

Kaya read countless books about medicine and she knew quite a lot, unfortunately, she had no time to practice due to her illness, which wasn't really an illness it was poison which Kuro slipped in her medicine and food.

Kaya indicated to Luffy to come closer as she said:

"I have a way to save Usopp, I need a bit of your blood, I haven't done this before but it's our only chance to save him, It seems you have very strong anti-corps that reject any foreign entities that enter your body that doesn't have good intentions, I should be able to make an antidote for the poison with your blood as your blood already countered the poison."

Luffy immediately kept an arm out so Kaya could extract blood from him, a syringe was ready to enter Luffy's arm which he kept as weak as possible, it took Kaya a few seconds to insert the syringe into the rubber straw-hat wearing boy but she succeeded and she drew quite a bit of blood out.

With the help of the blood and her knowledge of medicine and the ingredients she had on hand, she created a makeshift antidote which she quickly fed Usopp who was now unconscious.

Usopp suddenly started coughing out black blood and his face started to take a rosier color than before, it seemed the poison was taken care of.

Luffy and Kaya sighed at the same time, Luffy didn't want to see the son of a man he admired die while Kaya cared quite a lot about Usopp.

Zoro watched all of this happening impassively, even though he wouldn't want to watch an innocent die in front of him he couldn't do anything fo Usopp as he had no medical knowledge, now he realized that the crew needed a doctor as well, what if they got poisoned and they didn't know how to take care of it? Or if they encountered a deadly disease?

Luffy helped Kaya carry Usopp in the mansion where they put him on the couch, nearby was the body of the other butler of Kaya, Merry, he wore a blue butler uniform and had a hairstyle that made it look like a sheep was staying on his head.

Unfortunately Merry was the first victim of Kuro and he wasn't lucky enough to live till the antidote to the poison was made, Kaya started to cry silently as she saw Merry's body but she couldn't do anything for the dead man anymore.

Zoro walked inside the Mansion and said to Luffy:

"Luffy, we saved the villagers and Usopp, it's time to go we already did the best we can."

Luffy seemed reluctant to leave he wanted to wait till Usopp woke up then ask him to join his crew, Zoro saw that Luffy didn't want to leave yet and he sighed, hopefully, they wouldn't waste much time waiting around for the Usopp guy.

Zoro saw quite a lot of potential in Luffy, and he knew he couldn't go in alone the new world, he needed all the help he could get that's why he didn't leave east-blue already, he needed people who he could trust and that had high potential that could help him along the journey ahead of him, he didn't care if he was the captain, marine or pirate as long as he got to finish his goal. He joined Luffy only because he saw potential in him and at first he didn't like it, but Luffy started to grow on him, even though he wasn't particularly smart his potential at learning was quite high, well he was learning things that weren't academically inclined, everything else wouldn't stick to him even if you would put a super adhesive on him.

Zoro wouldn't take any orders from Luffy directly until he was at least his equal, he couldn't find himself listening to someone who was weaker than him, he would take Luffy's orders more as suggestions which he would or wouldn't act upon.

Zoro decided to wait for Kuina and Nami at the shore, they came twenty minutes later and Zoro informed them of everything that happened, Kuina herself said before he could inform her that they would wait for Luffy:

"Zoro, we should wait for Luffy and that Usopp guy, I know you don't really like it but.."

Zoro shook his head then said:

"It's ok Kuina I can wait, I already decided to wait before you and Nami came."

Kuina's eyes widened, it wasn't in Zoro's nature to do such a thing, Zoro was always quite distant and he didn't care much about strangers, why would he care about Usopp?

Zoro didn't actually care about Usopp but he decided to wait for Luffy's sake, he was there and he heard about the story of Yasopp, maybe his son would be as talented at sniping?

Zoro decided to wait and see, he wouldn't mind if Usopp joined the crew as long as he was obedient and was a good sniper.

Every big man had a good crew behind him and Zoro needed one as well, even now Koshiro's words were reverberating in his head:

"If only there was someone to stop me back then, someone to help me, maybe Kuina's mother wouldn't have died, please don't make the same mistakes as I did back then, you need a good crew behind your back, it doesn't matter where you find them but make sure they are loyal!"

Zoro took those words to heart as Koshiro's story moved him a bit, the story of two lover swordsmen going through adversities only for an accident to befell them of their own making. Zoro decided to not follow in the footsteps of Koshiro. He already had a good beginning crew, well technically it wasn't his crew but no one would listen to Luffy, Zoro didn't counter Luffy's sentence of him being the captain because he didn't care about such things, Luffy was captain only in name.

Zoro did start to respect Luffy after today's incident but he still didn't trust him enough, maybe with more time, he would start to trust him and teach him some Haki.

Usopp woke up a few days later.


	20. A changed Usopp

Usopp opened his eyes as his pale was still relatively pale compared to a healthy person, he had a peculiar look on his face as he looked around him, he saw Luffy and Kaya staying near him, Luffy was dozing off while Kaya looked like she just woke up.

She quickly got near him and said with a worried look on her face:

"God bless, Usopp you scared all of us, we almost lost you there."

Usopp seemingly still being out of it nodded his head and said:

"Kaya, I have seen my mother in my dream."

Kaya put a hand over her mouth as she gasped, Usopp's mother died years ago due to health complications, was he that close to death?

Usopp continued:

"She told me that it wasn't my time yet, she told me that I had to meet my father and give him a good beating for abandoning the both of us, but she also told me to give him a hug, it's strange, she smiled while he talked about him, it was like she wasn't bothered at all that he wasn't with her on her deathbed."

Usopp wanted to get up from the couch but Kaya stopped him and said:

"You want to get up already? You aren't fully healed, you should rest for a few weeks!"

Usopp shook his head and said:

"I'm feeling better already, just a bit weak, it should be from the blood loss, staying here won't help me with that, I think I need to eat something."

Kaya nodded her head as she examined his wounds which somehow already started to scab over, it seemed Luffy's blood combined with her concoction increased Usopp's metabolism by a bit, it was almost two times its normal speed!

Kaya came back with food which Usopp ate quickly, the smell of food woke Luffy up and he wanted to grab some as well, Kaya indicated that the food was for Usopp but Usopp shook his head at Kaya then said:

"He saved me, Kaya, let him have some food as well."

Usopp knew he made a mistake when Luffy inhaled the remaining food like a vacuum, Usopp didn't know what to say to Luffy so he just shut up, even though his metabolism increased he didn't have Luffy's appetite, after he ate some food he felt well enough and his face returned to its normal color.

Luffy seemed unsatisfied with the amount of food, however, but he knew there was no more food in the mansion as Kaya already came with whatever she found in the kitchen, Usopp looked at the body of Merry the butler and he put a sullen look on his face as he approached it, he looked towards Kaya and said:

"We should give him a proper burial."

Kaya sighed as tears streamed down her eyes and nodded at Usopp, with the help of Luffy's digging skills and Usopp construction skills they made a coffin and a grave for Merry, Usopp didn't want Luffy's help at this as he put Merry inside the coffin then gently let the coffin down in the grave with the help of some ropes, even though Usopp wasn't superhuman he still could lower a wooden coffin in a grave by himself, he was a strong and healthy young man, well as healthy as he could be after he went a near-death situation which involved poisoning.

Usopp then took a shovel and started to fill up the grave, Luffy already dug it so he wanted to fill it, after a while, he finally filled it fully, Kaya came forward with a photo of Merry and put it down on the gravesite, Usopp also left and came back with a makeshift cross which he impaled on the ground.

Usopp sighed while Kaya started to cry her eyes out even harder as she looked down at Merry's grave, he was like an uncle to her as he took care of her after her parent's demise, she felt that Merry didn't deserve to die, he was a good man who deserved to live.

She then remembered Kuro or Kurahadol as he introduced himself to the family, she hated the man with passion but he was already dead, she couldn't do anything to him as he was killed by Luffy. She sighed as she remembered how Kuro did a great job at acting, seemingly taking care of her and enjoying the activities they did together, but it was all a lie, a lie Kuro acted upon so he could get his hands on her fortune.

Luffy didn't know what to say in this situation, he was quite a simple guy who didn't go through such type of thing yet, his life in Fusha Village was easy, his hardest time was when Shanks gave up his arm to save him from a sea king, he still blamed himself for Shanks sacrifice to this day but there was nothing he could do for him anymore.

Luffy waited silently for a while then left with Usopp and Kaya, the village was a mess as people were crying out about their brother's fathers mothers or sisters who were killed by the pirates they wailed as they cradled the dead bodies of their kin while some of them spat on the bodies of the pirates who were felled by Zoro's swords.

All of the black cat pirates were dead or incapacitated by Zoro so they couldn't do anything even if they wanted to, the villagers, however, didn't let the incapacitated ones go away easily, they tortured them with pitchforks shot them with their cheap pistols until they bled out.

The hatred in these villagers hearts barely gone away with the killing of the incapacitated black cat pirates, Usopp was disturbed by the scenes he saw when he walked with Kaya to the village so he could see what happened, he looked around and he spotted his Usopp pirates crew, the three children Zoro saved, Usopp walked towards them and he sighed on how scared they were, they looked at everyone with a strange look in their eyes seemingly not trusting anyone anymore.

Only when they looked at Usopp their eyes turned to normal as the trio walked towards him and said:

"Captain Usopp, you are ok! We heard on how you tried to fight it out with Kurahadol and almost died!"

Even though Zoro didn't say anything the villagers still checked things out at the mansion and when they saw the trio sleeping and Usopp being bandaged they realized how things went out, well not one hundred percent correct but still relatively correct.

Kuro's body was already in the pile with all the other bodies of the black cat pirates which were thrown on their ship, a villager was ready to burn down the ship along with all their bodies as they wanted to push it out at sea but Usopp came forward and said:

"Can I do it?"

The villager looked at Usopp and then at his bandaged chest and he nodded his head, Usopp fought against Kuro so if he wanted to burn down the ship and the bodies it wasn't his job to stop him.

Usopp took the torch from the villager's hand and slowly walked towards the black cat ship, some images flashed in his mind as he walked towards black cat ship, on how he always lied on how he never did anything to better himself, if he was a little bit stronger no one had to die, no villager no one of Kaya's friends! Kaya was no all alone in the world as everyone she knew and loved was dead.

Usopp gritted his teeth as he looked at the black cat ship, its figurehead was mocking him in his vision as the black cat head transformed into Kuro's head which said:

"The son of a filthy pirate? Hah! you want to elope with miss Kaya and take all her inheritance for yourself don't you?"

He suddenly threw the torch at the ship and he pushed it as it started to sail aimlessly due to the current of the waters, God knew where it would end up. A fire started to encroach on the ship as it started to get higher and higher the ship departed from the island.

Zoro was on his ship training as but then he looked towards the horizon and saw how the black cat ship was going away burning like an effigy. Zoro shook his head it seemed they finally cleared out the bodies of the pirates he thought to himself.

Luffy was nearby and he observed how things went on, he never talked during the things that happened, he knew it was something important for Usopp and thus he decided to remain silent for his sake.

Usopp shook his head as he cleared his mind then looked around, the villagers were way fewer than some days ago and tears started to form in his eyes, he blamed himself especially hard as he always lied to them telling them that pirates were coming, and when pirates came they didn't believe him thinking that it was one of his lies again.

Maybe if he didn't lie so often, they would have believed him...

But there was no maybe's anymore, what happened, happened and now he couldn't do anything to reverse the past, all he could do now was try to get stronger for the future!

Usopp walked towards Luffy and said:

"Luffy you are a pirate?"

Luffy nodded his head and said:

"I wanted you to join my crew the moment I realized you are Yasopp's son."

Usopp smiled at the reminder of his last alive family member then said:

"You know, I always thought myself of being a Captain, but after all of this happened I realized that I'm not cut to be one, I'm not cut to take care of a crew, If I was a Captain I would have been able to save Merry and the villagers, So I never will call myself Captain Usopp anymore, let me join you Luffy!

You helped me and killed Kuro you gave up your blood so Kaya could make an antidote to save me, I owe you my life and I want to join your crew!"

Luffy smiled at Usopp's words and nodded at him then said:

"Ok Usopp you are officially in the crew, you should know about Zoro as you already saw him, there are two more crewmates in my crew Nami the navigator and Kuina."

Usopp nodded at Luffy's words then said:

"Luffy I have to pack up so can you wait for me?"

Luffy just said yes.

Usopp walked towards his house where he packed his belongings, he didn't take much with him beside the necessities one would have at sea, but things piled up one on another and he got a giant bag with him.

He walked towards Kaya's mansion and met with her in the living room, Kaya stood there exhausted emotionally from all the things she had to go through when she saw Usopp with his giant bag, tears wanted to escape her eyes but there were no more, she walked towards him and grasped his hand as she said:

"You want to leave?"

Usopp nodded his head and a smile appeared on his face as he grasped her hand back and he said:

"Yes and I wanted to ask you if you wanted to leave with me, we can join Luffy on his journey, I already joined his crew and he wouldn't mind if you joined him as well, we need a doctor like you on the crew anyway!"

Kuina would have refused if even only Merry was alive but she was the only one remaining in the mansion anymore, there was no one she could interact with, she was all alone and Usopp was her remaining best friend and love interest, she couldn't let the man go but she couldn't stop him so all she could do was follow him!

Kaya opened her mouth and said with conviction in her words:

"I will follow you even in the devil's den Usopp, I have no one else besides you anymore."

She squeezed his hand at the words, as she was no longer getting poisoned daily by Kuro her strength was recovering at a quick speed and her pale complexion was turning to normal skin color.

Usopp's smile widened at her words then he said:

"Pack up then, we are leaving with Luffy."

Kaya seemingly remembered something and she said:

"Does Luffy have a ship?"

Usopp didn't ask Luffy about a ship so he said:

"I uh I'm not sure to be honest, while you pack I'm going to go and ask him, wait here!"

Usopp ran away with the giant bag on his back which made it look quite comical, Usopp met up with Luffy at the same place and asked in a hurry:

"Luffy do you have a ship?"

Technically the ship was Zoro's so Luffy didn't have a ship so he answered directly:

"Well the ship isn't mine but I'm the Captain."

Luffy puffed up at the words captain, Usopp didn't know how things worked in Luffy's crew so he didn't know what to say. He got back to Kaya and he started to cough a bit, his physique wasn't that strong and the running already took a bit of a toll of on him as the bag was quite heavy, normally he wouldn't get tired that fast due to running.

Kaya walked towards Usopp and asked:

"So does he have a ship?"

Usopp shook his head and said:

"He said that the ship is Zoro's."

Kaya murmured under her breath:

"Merry, you would have done the same thing wouldn't you?"

She took Usopp to the back of the mansion and showed him the caravel ship that stood behind it, the ship was of average size but it was a little big bigger than Zoro's actual ship, it had a sheep figurehead and it's color scheme was white and brown it had one big canon in front under the figurehead and four other near the railings on both sides.

Usopp eyes widened at the sight of the ship, it was pretty good ship why did she show it to him?

Kaya said immediately after Usopp thought about this:

"I have decided to gift Luffy this ship, Merry he.. he finished working on the ship a few days before he got killed, he said he didn't want to watch the ship mother and father used to fade into nothing as it reminded him of them, I think we should call it The Going Merry after him.."

Usopp nodded his head at her words then he said:

"I'm going to call Luffy and the others over."

Usopp ran away again towards Luffy's place where he met with him then he asked him to go to Zoro and the others.

Zoro wasn't surprised at Usopp's appearance but when Usopp asked all of them to come with him so he could show them something he was surprised. He decided to follow him as he was quite bored currently and he had nothing to do.

Nami and Kuina also finished whatever they were doing so they decided to follow as well. With the crew in tow, Usopp showed them to The Going Merry.

Luffy was extremely happy at his ship while Zoro observed the ship and realized that it was a bit better than his, it could even go through paradise but he doubted it could go through the new world, he also didn't know where he could get a good enough ship as he didn't find a shipwright anywhere that could create him a ship that could sail the new world, maybe he could find one in the grand line.

Luffy took over the ship immediately as he stood on the figurehead and said that it was his place now, Zoro looked around the ship and nodded his head, it was a good ship that was currently better than his, he decided he would move everything from his ship to this one and sell the other one, there was no reason to have two ships currently, and he could always steal another one from an opposing pirate group.

After all of their belongings, were changed from ship to ship Usopp informed them of Kaya's decision of going with them, Luffy grinned from ear to ear and he said:

"Kaya is smart, she even healed you, we need someone like her with us, she is free to come with us!"

Zoro didn't mind as well as a doctor was always welcome on a ship.

Usopp nodded his head then helped Kaya up on the ship, she was already waiting for the confirmation.

Usopp smiled towards Kaya and introduced Nami and Kuina to her, Nami and Kuina were happy that another girl joined the crew as they weren't the minority anymore they were now in equal numbers!

Zoro sighed as he watched Nami and Kuina drag Kaya towards the new's girl quarters. Usopp seemingly understood Zoro and he sighed as well, only Luffy didn't understand a thing as he stood on the figurehead.

It was finally time to sail again! Sails unfurled anchor withdrawn and ready to go, Nami was at the rudder as she finished the talk with Kaya some time ago, unfortunately, they were running low on supplies as they couldn't resupply at Syrup Village due to their situation, the villagers needed food and water currently and not money as some of their supplies were destroyed when the pirates attacked.

The closest island was quite far away but there was still one place they could get food from! The Baratie was rather close but Zoro didn't want to go there as he muttered something about blonde shitty perverted cooks who don't know their place.

Kuina sighed as she heard Zoro's mutterings, the man was quite perverted but at least he knew his limits, Sanji immediately backed off as he saw the interactions between Zoro and Kuina, even though he still treated Kuina with respect he didn't make any other advances on her.

Usopp walked towards Zoro and he wanted to ask him something, Zoro looked at Usopp and Usopp was immediately intimidated by his stare even though Zoro wasn't trying to intimidate.

Usopp gulped loudly as he asked:

"Luffy told me you are way stronger than him so please take me as your disciple."

He got down on his knees and kowtowed to Zoro immediately, Zoro's eyes widened at Usopp's sudden gesture then grabbed him by the arm and dragged him up, he didn't like people doing that kind of stuff and he directly asked:

"You want to learn swordsmanship? Aren't you supposed to be a sniper?"

Usopp shook his head at the question and said:

"I don't want to learn swordsmanship I want to become stronger!"

Zoro realized that Usopp wanted his body training techniques and not swordsmanship instructions since now they were of the same crew Zoro didn't refuse and he immediately made Usopp go through the wringer.

Usopp looked like he did when he was on his deathbed after the first day of training, Luffy also joined in the training but he did exercises that were way harder compared to Usopp's and more in number as well.

Usopp muttered to himself as he went to the men's room:

"Mother, you came to visit again?"

Kaya gasped when she heard his words but Usopp motioned with his hand that he was ok.

Usopp continued:

"No mother, I'm eating well."

Kaya walked towards Usopp and she asked with concern:

"Usopp are you ok?"

Usopp just fell on the floor face down at her question.

Kaya immediately went with a full examination but she realized that he was just extremely exhausted and she couldn't do anything to help him with it.

She grabbed Usopp up from the ground and left him in a hammock in the men's room.

Zoro shook his head as he looked at Usopp's condition, it would be a long while before he became as strong as he wanted.

Luffy was still training with him as they both sweated and trained the sun went down, the day ended so they had dinner and went to sleep.

Unfortunately, Usopp had to sleep for a few days before he could join their training again.

A few more days after Usopp woke up from his beauty sleep they reached Baratie for the second time!

There Zoro felt a sensation he never felt before, a sensation of an insurmountable wall that he had to get over, he felt someone who was way stronger than him, so strong that he couldn't beat him even if he went all out.

Was it him? The strongest swordsman in the world? In east-blue? Or was it someone else?


	21. The world's strongest

Zoro became excited as he felt the aura, it was a peculiar aura it was like he was looking directly at the sun, Kuina and Nami paled at the aura that they felt while Zoro got excited, the difference between them could be seen by their actions after they felt the aura.

Kuina shook her head as she thought:

"What a powerful aura, who could it be?"

Nami didn't know what to say as the powerful aura stunned her, suddenly aura felt Zoro and the others aura and it started to shrink itself by a lot.

It seems the aura's owner felt them probing around with their Observation and decided to lower his output to not damage their spirits, overexposure of someone's strong aura could damage the spirit of the one that felt it.

Zoro thought to himself:

"Well, at least he is considerate towards the others." He looked towards Kuina and Nami, they were still pale but they were recovering. The aura was seemingly waiting for them as the other smaller auras around him started dying out, their voices snuffed out, the relatively bigger aura but not my much, if the smaller auras were ants the bigger aura was like a beetle bug and the gigantic aura was like the sun!

The Going Merry was sailing towards Baratie, Luffy, Kaya, and Usopp didn't know anything about what happened as they weren't trained in observation haki, they all thought they were going to eat at a fancy sea restaurant. Luffy was already drooling thinking about the food at the restaurant when his senses suddenly felt something wasn't right. It wasn't haki, it was his perfectly honed senses that were trained through the special survival training given by Garp.

Luffy looked around him but he didn't see anything wrong yet as they didn't get in visual range to see what happened to the Baratie.

As they got closer and closer they could see a giant galleon cut into smaller pieces a purple-haired man who wore a gold plated battle armor was clutching his throat as he looked at a man who wore a purple fedora, purple jacket white pants, and black boots he had a giant black sword on his back with an encrusted handle. His eyes were yellow and patterned looking just like a hawk's, he had a french mustache and beard on his fair white face.

He shook his head as he said out loud:

"This is all the best of the east-blue could give? You wouldn't have survived in the grand line anyway, I did you a favor by chasing you back here and ending you."

Suddenly out of nowhere his eyes targeted Zoro who was standing near the ship's railings watching him from afar.

The cooks of Baratie were cheering at Don Kreig's death while the remainder of his crew didn't know what to say, a lot of his people died but his main lieutenant Gin didn't die as he was on the Baratie when Mihawk attacked.

Zoro jumped from debris to debris as he already left the ship his eyes were serious as he directly tied his bandana around his head and he announced out loud:

"Roronoa Zoro, I challenge you to a duel, Mihawk!"

Mihawk shook his head at Zoro's words then said:

"You are like a sea-king infant in a lake, it seems you know a bit about Haki but at best you are at a beginner level of the new world, what are you even doing in east-blue?"

Zoro responded to him:

"To be honest with you, I think I should have left a long time ago, but my sensei told me that I should get along with some people instead of going alone, he said that it would help me a lot on my journey."

Mihawk nodded at the words, they made sense, a sensei would want the best of his student so him having someone around that could help him would be better than him going alone.

But Mihawk still shook his head and said:

"You are quite strong but still weak compared to me, you won't win if you fight me, why challenge me then?"

Zoro said while he unsheathed his swords:

"To be honest with you I never felt like I had a chance of defeating you, but you are already in front of me and I want to see how far I am from reaching the world's strongest swordsman title."

Mihawk chuckled as he said:

"Have you thought that if you challenged me now you wouldn't be able to in the future?"

After his chuckle a dangerous aura started to gather around Mihawk as his Haki started to manifest outside his body, thunder clouds started to gather around the skies of Baratie, the cook crew looked up and Sanji's cigarette that he just lit fell out of his mouth as he realized that Mihawk was controlling the surroundings without doing anything visibly.

Zeff watched Mihawk with a peculiar gaze as he commented:

"It seems the kid from back then grew a bit but to challenge that monster... It's still too early!"

Zoro heard Zeff's comment but decided to not say anything against it as it was true, Mihawk also wore a cross necklace on his neck which he opened and a dagger came out of it, Zoro eyes narrowed dangerously was Mihawk looking down on him so much?

Mihawk looked at the dagger then assessed Zoro again then put the dagger back into its slot then said:

"To be honest with you I could have killed you already with that dagger, but I decided to fight you with the best sword in the world Yoru, do you know why? You remind me of someone I fought in my youth, those eyes of yours, that will you exude, ah it's just like I'm going back in time, I will accept your duel Roronoa Zoro."

Zoro smiled at Mihawk's words as Mihawk took the giant sword from his back Zoro tensed up as his muscles swelled and he directly activated Armament Hardening. Mihawk chuckled as he activated his Armament making his black sword even darker than it was indicating that he activated his Hardening, he was using the same amount as Zoro.

Zoro and Mihawk clashed in mid-air between two pieces of the galleon as they slashed at each other it was obvious who had the advantage, Mihawk was faster stronger and had better control of his Haki than Zoro, his sword technique was superior in all aspects, his body and technique were balanced in such a way that it seemed he reached the apex of swordsmanship.

And this was him without using one hundred percent of his strength!

Zoro struggled to dodge and counter-attacking Mihawk's slashes, one slash here and his head almost fell, his cheek cut and bleeding he growled as he pushed himself in front of Mihawk and all three of his swords were pushing against his throat as he said:

"Three sword style: Throat targeting demon!"

Mihawk smiled at Zoro's attempt of slashing his throat as his word immediately appeared in front of his throat and he deflected Zoro's three swords with pure strength.

Zoro staggered backward almost falling in the waters surrounding the piece of debris he was standing on but fortunately he stopped himself a few centimeters before he fell in the water.

Mihawk suddenly flashed and appeared in front of Zoro his sword poised to cut Zoro in two and end his life, Zoro's eyes widened and he tried to dodge but it was too late.

Kuina wanted to go down there and help him but Nami put a hand over her shoulders and shook her head there was nothing she could do anymore.

Zoro's eyes turned scarlet as suddenly two more heads appeared along with two more sets of arms, his swords multiplied as well somehow.

Mihawk's eyes widened as he looked at Zoro's transformation and muttered:

"Have you unlocked that aspect of Haki? no, your Haki still isn't there.. this seems like a mutation of some sort..."

While he was distracted by Zoro's transformation Zoro used all his arms to deflect the slash that was going to cut him in two by the waist and he growled in a demonic voice:

"Nine sword style: Asura decapitation!"

A dark aura started to appear around Zoro as his power increased seemingly something was ready to come out of his being and show itself to the world but it's power increase suddenly stopped after it reached a certain amount, the thing that wanted to come out remained inside.

Zoro appeared behind Mihawk as the sword that was in his mouth shattered he smiled to himself as a slash appeared on his chest, a thin cut appeared on Mihawk's cheek, Zoro's transformation reverted he looked at Kuina and said out loud:

"Kuina lend me your sword for the last confrontation."

Kuina nodded her head and threw Wado Ichimonji to him, Zoro unsheathed the sword and put the sheath on his hip, he put the sword in his mouth.

Mihawk put a hand over the cut on his cheek and the cut suddenly disappeared, Mihawk chuckled as he looked at Zoro:

"You are the first one that hurt me in quite a while, well the first one with such a meager amount of power, whatever, this will be the last slash you will see from me, come!"

Zoro smiled as Yubashiri and Kitetsu started to spin at extremely fast speeds and he started to run towards Mihawk, Mihawk ran forward as well as they met in the middle of the debris, they both muttered their sword skills at the same time:

"Three sword style secret technique armament enhanced: Thirty thousand worlds!"

"Sword breaking technique: Star of destruction"

They both were now where they were previously staying, Mihawk was in Zoro's place and vice versa. Zoro chuckled as he looked at his swords, fortunately, armament saved them from being destroyed, Mihawk broke through his armament and injured his soul but all three of the swords were ok.

Mohawk looked down at his chest as a thin slash appeared on it which immediately healed itself afterward due to his use of Life return.

He looked at Zoro as he sheathed all three of his swords and then he threw Wado Ichimonji back to Kuina.

He approached Mihawk and opened both of his arms wide, Mihawk looked at him with a curious look on his face as he asked:

"What are you doing?"

Zoro smiled as he responded:

"I lost, and a scar on his back is a swordsman shame!"

Mihawk smiled at Zoro's words then said:

"Well said!" Mihawk suddenly slashed with his Yoru cutting Zoro over the chest, Zoro endured but he still fell to his knees, Luffy suddenly shouted:

"ZORO!"

He used his Gum-Gum rocket to jump directly on Mihawk and try to attack him but Zoro caught Luffy before he could attack Mihawk which opened his wound further, Luffy immediately came forward to support Zoro, Zoro accepted the help as he looked at Mihawk and said:

"Is this all?"

Mihawk smiled as he said:

"You wonder why didn't I kill you? I saw some interesting things from you today, especially that transformation of yours, I want to fight you again in the future, I want to see how much you can grow, I want to see if you can truly surpass me, I see the potential hidden deep within you *Mihawk peered with his eyes at Zoro seemingly seeing through him* and I see something that excites me, It's something that I haven't seen in a long while, It looks like a challenge."

Zoro chuckled as he said:

"Being at the top is lonely eh?"

Mihawk took a more serious look at Zoro's question and he answered directly:

"Yes, unlike you I was always alone, from the moment I started swinging the sword to the moment I became the best, I have few friendly acquaintances and it gets boring to fight them over and over, getting to fight someone new would be interesting, so don't disappoint me next time we meet Roronoa Zoro!"

Luffy didn't say anything as he supported Zoro, he wanted to beat this guy's ass for hurting Zoro so hard but he decided against it, he felt extreme danger from him and Zoro himself stopped him from doing anything that meant Zoro didn't want him to attack Mihawk.

Mihawk left using his coffin boat, as the mist started to engulf him he disappeared, Zoro flinched as his wound bleed, Kaya shouted towards Luffy:

"Get him to the ship immediately, he is bleeding severely and he needs to be patched up!"

Kaya immediately went to work on Zoro the moment Luffy took him back to the ship, Zoro was already holding himself back from passing out when he was sure he was going to be ok in Kaya's hand his world went dark.

While Kaya was working on Zoro, Luffy decided to go to the restaurant so he could eat something, Kuina decided to wait for Zoro to wake up, so only Nami Luffy and Usopp got to the restaurant.

Luffy waited at a table as Nami instructed him to, Usopp was handling himself like a noble somehow, seemingly knowing about table manners and such things, it seemed he wanted to get a good impression on the cooks here for some reason.

Luffy didn't care about such things as he picked his nose like he wasn't in a restaurant at all, Sanji was the only one who could still cook during such conditions as there weren't many supplies left and only he could make things that tasted good with almost no ingredients while the other cooks were too lazy to take orders now.

Sanji started to swoon around as he saw Nami and he became immediately infatuated with her, Nami as always being the scheming woman she was made him get her free food and desserts. Of course, Luffy and Usopp still had to pay for theirs.

When the food entered Luffy's mouth it seemed like an explosion of flavor was entertaining his taste buds, stars appeared in his eyes as he exclaimed:

"SO GOOD!" He ate like he didn't eat in days, Luffy ate twenty minutes before entering the restaurant.

Usopp had the same reaction as Luffy, while Nami's reaction wasn't as exaggerated as theirs she still put a hand over her cheek as she ate seemingly taking pleasure in each bite.

Luffy called for Sanji over and he asked:

"You made this food?"

Sanji took a puff of his already lit cigarette and said:

"Yes, you shitty costumer do you want seconds?"

Luffy smiled as he said:

"I have decided you join my crew as my cook!"

Sanji eyes became as big as onions, did this guy have any shame? The first thing you say to a stranger is to ask him to join your crew? Can't you at least buy me dinner first?

Sanji shook his head several times as he said:

"No, no, The old man still has a long way before he dies, I need to remain on the ship."

Suddenly old man Zeff came from upstairs as he glowered at Sanji:

"Talking about my death are you, you goddamn little eggplant!"

Sanji's eyes seemingly transformed into fire as he said:

"Who are you calling eggplant you shitty old man!"

A peg leg was suddenly found on Sanji's head, hitting him several times over it creating a bunch of bumps on it, Zeff continued:

"You didn't want to follow the guys that came some years ago and now you don't want to go with these guys, you don't understand already? I'm telling you to go!"

Sanji's eyes widened as Zeff told him the truth directly in his face, the old man wanted him to go?

Sanji looked at Zeff and he asked:

"Old man.. why?"

Zeff seemingly took a reminiscent gaze as he looked at Sanji and he responded to his question with another question:

"Do you remember our dream?"

Sanji suddenly remembered and he said:

"But old man wasn't the restaurant your dream?"

Zeff sadly shook his head and said:

"This is the dream of an old man who can't sail anymore, don't bother with me Sanji, go with these young lads, they are good kids, that Zoro guy is also plenty strong and he can take care of you."

Sanji seemed annoyed at the mention of Zoro and he said:

"Do I have to go old man?"

Zeff just answered:

"If you want to accomplish both of our dreams if you don't just stay here."

Then Zeff left upstairs doing god knows what in his room. Sanji left for his room as he remembered his past. How Zeff took him in, how the ship got attacked and they ended up on a rock with very few supplies, on how they shared their dreams, on how Zeff gave him his last food so he could survive and how he ate his leg.

He needed to, no he had to accomplish their shared dream, he had to find all blue, and even if he couldn't he had to try!

Sanji started to pack his things and after a few tens of minutes he was done, he packed quite a few cigarette packs and all his clean suits.

Luffy was ready to leave the ship as he already ate and paid, well Kuina gave Nami money so she could pay for all the boys would eat so technically Kuina paid for the food.

Sanji suddenly ran and he asked Luffy:

"Have you ever heard of all blue?"

Luffy shook his head and said:

"Nope!"

Sanji came forward to Luffy and started to explain to him about all blue, Luffy's eyes turned into stars as he said:

"Wow we surely have to go there one day, fishes from all the seas, that sounds yummy!"

Sanji chuckled at Luffy's naivety and he asked:

"What's your dream Luffy was it?" Sanji already heard Nami and Usopp mention Luffy's name as Luffy mentioned Nami's and Usopp's as well.

Luffy puffed up his chest as he said:

"I'm going to become the king of pirates!"

Sanji chuckled then it turned into full-blown laughter:

"The marimo wants to be the world's strongest swordsman you want to be the King of Pirates and I want to go to all blue, this is an interesting crew, what about you mademoiselle, and you uh Usopp?"

Nami said:

"I want to make a map of the world!"

And Usopp said:

"And I want to become a great warrior of the sea and meet my father which is an officer of the Yonko!"

Sanji's eyes widened at Usopp's mention of the Yonko, his father was an officer on such a ship?

He took a double look at Usopp but he only looked average at best, while his physique did get better with Zoro's training it didn't get to the part he looked that well made.

Sanji continued to chat with the trio as they walked towards the ship.

Zoro suddenly woke up as Kaya finished patching him up and Kuina was near the bed where he placed holding his hand. Kuina smiled as Zoro woke up but Zoro suddenly said something that puzzled her:

"I feel something isn't right!"


	22. Training

Kuina looked around and sensed with her Observation Haki but she couldn't find anything wrong anywhere, she approached Zoro and squeezed his hand while saying:

"Zoro nothing's wrong, maybe you had a nightmare?"

Zoro shook his head indicating he was ok then said:

"I just feel something is wrong like something happened that it wasn't supposed to."

Kuina shook her head indicating she didn't know what Zoro was talking about, then she approached Zoro bit by bit, Zoro looked at her and indicated that they weren't in the right location, Kuina just nodded and said:

"You know on the next island let's split from the group." She had a peculiar smile on her face when she said that.

Zoro didn't know how to handle Kuina in their relationship but decided to do what she wanted as there was still quite a long way before the next island. Luffy was outside while Sanji got inside the kitchen and was admiring it.

Kaya came inside the kitchen to get a drink when Sanji became all lovey-dovey with her, Usopp immediately felt a disturbance in the force and came between Sanji and Kaya in the kitchen. Sanji started to sulk, why were all the beautiful ladies already taken?

Nami didn't seem interested in his advances at all when they got on the ship, she was seemingly more interested in the newspaper price increase than him. Sanji sighed with heartache as he didn't know what to do. Then his eyes started sparkling as he thought about it:

"I can cook for them, at least we would have a good relationship if I made them good food right?"

Sanji started to whip up some food in the kitchen while everyone else gathered on the deck as Zoro got up from the bed and got to the deck then asked for everyone to come. They were already sailing away from the Baratie as some of the chefs were waving goodbye to Sanji.

Zoro coughed a bit then opened his mouth to address his crewmates:

"Luffy, even though you had no chance of beating Mihawk back there you threw yourself at him with no regards of yourself, why?"

Luffy opened his mouth and told simply:

"If any of my crewmates are in danger I will save them, no matter what! We are like family now."

Zoro chuckled as he heard Luffy's words then he said:

"Good words Luffy, I respect you a bit more now, and I can say that I would even trust you."

Luffy wasn't smart enough to manipulate people with his words, he couldn't even lie, all his emotions were basically on his face, what he said was genuine and Zoro liked simple guys like Luffy, he could trust him with his back when he fought any stronger pirates out there, Luffy had quite the high potential and he decided it was time to train him in Haki, as for Usopp he hadn't even finished the body tempering training he gave him so no Haki for him for quite a long while, he still didn't trust the long-nosed person a lot either.

Kaya was also training slowly with Usopp as her body was getting healthier so Zoro didn't need to train her, even though Nami was the navigator she was very leisure in east-blue so she could join the training sessions as well.

While Usopp Kaya and Nami were training their physique Zoro dragged Luffy away and started to teach him Observation Haki, as it was the first Haki he should learn first:

"Ok, Luffy this mystery power as you called it when I tried to explain it to you It's called Haki, it can make you dodge before your brain can register it and see what your opponents plan, it can let you read their minds during fights."

Luffy's eyes started to transform into stars as he said:

"Read minds so cool!"

Zoro decided to ignore Luffy's happy outbursts and continued:

"To teach you Observation I will blindfold you and hit you over with this plank till you will dodge!"

Luffy nodded his head it didn't seem hard to him, he sat cross-legged on the deck and Zoro blindfolded him when suddenly he was cracked on the head with a plank coated in armament Haki.

Luffy clutched his head as a gigantic bump grew on it as he shouted:

"Zoro what the hell it hurts!"

Zoro laughed as he responded:

"I forgot to tell you the plank will be coated in the second type of Haki that ignores your natural defense? It will make you learn faster if you can feel the pain."

Nami shuddered as she looked over at their training she remembered her own and boy it wasn't a pretty experience for her.

Zoro laughed as he trained Luffy in Observation Haki, Sanji was still in the kitchen and after a while, he came out with trays of food and drinks on his hands when he saw the women training and sweating his tongue rolled out of his mouth like in cartoons.

But he composed himself as he shouted:

"Food is ready!"

Zoro narrowed his eyes as he saw Sanji and realized why he felt a disturbance, it was this guy Luffy recruited him...

Zoro decided to not insult him as long as he didn't start anything as the stronger party. Zoro approached the food with Luffy and Usopp and the girls, Sanji wanted to say that some foods were only for the girls but Zoro's glare shut him down, he realized that he needed to join the training sessions if he would want to say anything to the moss-colored haired swordsman in the future.

Sanji wanted to protest as his food was eaten by Luffy Usopp and Zoro instead of the three beauties but he couldn't or Zoro would chop him up and fed him to the sea kings. Zoro already didn't like him and any wrong move from him would send him in a world of pain so he decided to shut up and eat some food himself.

After all the food was gone Zoro decided to go back to training while all of the others continued theirs. Sanji joined the girls and Usopp in training and he realized that Zoro's training regiment was quite stringent and it was pretty helpful for the whole body, even though his main and only attacking stance was using his legs having an unbalanced body strength wasn't good so he always trained his whole body when he trained himself at Baratie.

Luffy couldn't dodge anything in the first day and the next day, it was normal no matter how talented Luffy was, Haki was high-level stuff that not everyone could learn, it would take quite a long while before he learned and mastered the basics of Observation Haki.

Finally, they reached an island where they could resupply and Kuina dragged Zoro somewhere where they had some "fun" Zoro blushed heavily as Kuina followed him from behind as she smiled at him then she said:

"Quite the interesting experience isn't it?"

Zoro nodded his head, he hadn't felt something like this before, the sensation was almost as good as when he trained and he could feel himself get stronger!

However nothing could top training for Zoro, but this could be a stress-relieving activity that he would pursue in the future with Kuina, Kuina told him this was something girlfriends and boyfriends did and since they were now in a relationship he wasn't going to say no to this kind of stuff.

Nami eyed both of them as Sanji was carrying a very big bag on his back full with supplies, she narrowed her eyes as she saw Zoro and looked over at Kuina and asked:

"So?"

Kuina just gave Nami a thumbs up. Nami chuckled and continued towards Going Merry with Sanji coming after her like a lovesick puppy.

Luffy was god knows where with Usopp after a few hours they came back with singed hair and sorry-looking figures, when Zoro asked what they were doing out there they said that they found some guy who made gunpowder and that Usopp accidentally lit it up when he tried to inspect it as he wanted to make his own for his pachinko ammo.

It resulted in both of them looking like they came out of an explosion, which they did.

Zoro decided to let them do whatever they wanted as he walked back to the ship, he needed to continue his training.

As everyone went back to the ship Zoro went to the crow nest and sat cross-legged in it as he visualized the fight with Mihawk from before and thought to himself as he remembered the times when he injured him:

"Wait for a little... no that's wrong why would he?"

It seemed Zoro realized something, his injuries on Mihawk were not because he took him off guard, they were because he let him injure him!

But why would Mihawk let him cut him? Was it to make him feel better? Mihawk didn't seem like that type of merciful guy who would spare the pride of a swordsman, why did he let him slash him?

Zoro started to think long and hard about it and he only had one theory about why Mihawk let him slash him, he was just trying to get a feel for his attacks and ultimate technique so he could counter them in the future!

Letting an attack land on your body would make your body reflexively counter it next time, did that mean Mihawk thought that he would be strong enough to challenge him next time they met?

Maybe he was overthinking things, right now he wouldn't be even at ten percent of Mihawk's true strength.

Out of one hundred simulations that he fought against Mihawk again, he lost all of them! He couldn't win any, Mihawk would always be stronger and faster he would always have better swordsmanship. It was most likely because Zoro didn't know the limits of Mihawk's strength so he always belittled himself in front of him.

But his simulations would hold, even if he improved Mihawk would just increase his strength percentage and dominate him again, it would take him a long while before he would become Mihawk's equal, let's not even talk when he would become stronger than him.

Mihawk himself didn't say it but he encountered a bottleneck in his swordsmanship, that's why he would fight admirals and the Yonkou from time to time to try and breakthrough but he realized that he needed a fellow swordsman to truly get through his swordsmanship bottleneck.

The strongest half a swordsman he knew was Red-Haired Shanks so he stopped sparring with the admirals and the other Yonkou and decided to focus on Shanks which he was relatively equal with, unfortunately, Shanks was only half a swordsman and he could be counted more as a Haki specialist thus Mihawk still couldn't break through his bottleneck.

However, after he saw Zoro and his potential he saw a future opponent that could help him finally reach the peak realm of swordsmanship something he sought the moment he took a sword in his hand.

It was his lifelong dream of achieving the peak, unfortunately, he couldn't do it alone as he needed someone similarly strong to him while also being a swordsman to achieve the peak of swordsmanship.

He couldn't find any other swordsmen as strong as him or with the potential to reach or even go beyond his strength in the world, that's why he let Zoro live even though he could have easily killed him.

Zoro didn't know these things but Mihawk was already thinking about the fight that would happen in the future. He was on his coffin boat smiling as he thought:

"Our fight will shock the world, Roronoa Zoro."

Zoro shuddered out of nowhere and he said while scratching his head:

"Did we enter a windy area?"

He looked from the crow's nest but there was no wind, he muttered to himself:

"So weird..."

Zoro got back to his simulation training that he would continue for a few hours before going down to train Luffy in Observation while he also trained his physical prowess by lifting weights while hitting Luffy on the head with the plank.

Sometimes his concentration would slip and he would hit Luffy with the weights, fortunately, Luffy was sturdy enough to take a non-Haki enhanced hit from several tens of tones weight.

Even though he became unconscious afterward he was still alive and well so he was ok so Zoro took this mistake of his as extra Observation Haki training for Luffy. It wasn't his fault Kuina was looking at him with those eyes of hers that indicated that something was going to happen on the next island.

They were only a few islands away from Logue Town and Luffy wanted to visit the execution stand so they decided to go and Resupply there for the last time before they got to the grand line, they also had to buy some necessary stuff for grand line navigation.

After a few more islands where Zoro had some "adventures" and the others had their kind of adventures those that didn't encounter any kind of skin on skin touching, they finally reached the town of the beginning and the end Logue Town!


	23. Logue Town

Luffy's training was interrupted by Usopp's shout:

"Land-ho!"

They were getting nearer to League Town and the island became visible, Luffy became excited as stars appeared in his eyes and he muttered to himself:

"The Island where the pirate king lived and died..."

It was like a spiritual journey for him who wanted to become the next pirate king, Luffy decided he needed to see the place where the pirate king died, the execution platform!

Kuina shook her head at Luffy's antics, to her Luffy was quite the funny guy in her opinion, then she indicated to Zoro to come closer to her as she had something to say to him:

"I'm feeling quite bad that I can't visit my sister anymore due to this." She took something out of her pocket, it was a paper which had the word 'dead or alive' on it in large characters in black color, most of the wanted poster space was taken by a picture of Zoro with his bandana on all three swords out and a peculiar aura that existed around him somehow the camera that took this photo captured the aura around Zoro.

Under the dead or alive was a relatively big number 350,000,000 it was a huge first bounty, Zoro chuckled as he saw the number, he thought that it could be a bit bigger but it was still quite a good number.

Kuina shook her head as she observed the wanted poster, Tashigi maybe would ignore the fact that she was in Zoro's crew if Zoro wasn't present as she didn't have a bounty herself but if Zoro got recognized, her as a marine needed to try and apprehend Zoro, so Zoro couldn't come with her if she wanted to visit Tashigi.

As Kuina told him those words Zoro nodded his head and said:

"If you want to visit your sister you can go now, I think I'll train on the ship and wait for you guys to finish your jobs on the island, don't forget to buy some mini den-den mushis for everyone so we will be able to contact each other even at high distances."

The den-den mushi wasn't an idea Zoro had, Nami told him about this before and he decided to remind Kuina about it. Kuina nodded her head, she would visit Tashigi then go with the others to shop for some sword sharpening instruments and some other things she needed.

Zoro decided to start with his meditation training first and he let everyone else leave. Kuina Usopp Luffy, Kaya Nami and Sanji left the ship to buy the things they needed.

Usopp went ahead to buy some trinkets and things he needed to create ammo, Luffy walked around trying to find the execution platform and with the help of a guy named Smoker he found it, Smoker didn't recognize Luffy as Luffy didn't have any bounty yet so Smoker went back to his office to rest after a day of patrolling.

Kaya and Nami went to buy some clothes and medical supplies that they needed, Sanji entered into a strange contest with a woman for a giant elephant tuna fish and also bought different types of fish and cooking supplies, he knew of Luffy's appetite so he bought quite a lot having a giant bag strapped to his bag.

He met with Usopp later who helped him with the weight.

Zoro was training on the ship as he expanded his Observation Haki, however, he couldn't find the hidden existence who was Observing Luffy and everyone in his crew.

The existence chuckled as he looked at Luffy jumping on the execution platform and then being admonished by a guard there:

"Charming as your old man aren't you Luffy? You got quite an interesting crew there."

In Marineford there was a meeting between some important old men as they looked at pictures of Zoro on board, an old man who had a sheathed sword in his arms and was bald wore glasses and he had a blue and white gown on his body said:

"This little fellow has quite the high potential, our cipherphol dug around for quite a bit before we got some things regarding his past, even though his teacher is unknown he didn't leave the east-blue his whole life!"

An old man with a flowing white beard and a black suit harumphed and said:

"If his potential is so high that means he is a danger to the world government I say we call an admiral to take care of him immediately! His first bounty exceeded 100,000 he is extremely dangerous!"

An old man who wore sunglasses and had a dirty mustache said out loud:

"Why don't we invite him to become a Shichibukai?"

The old man with the sword chuckled and he said:

"Old third, it seems your memory isn't as good as before, didn't you know that all the positions are filled?"

The man with sunglasses coughed then said:

"Then let's just throw someone out."

All the other old men's eyes widened, throw someone out for Roronoa Zoro? even though he was strong that would mean going against the word they gave those pirates.

The man with the sword chuckled and he said:

"Doable, but who can we throw out? most likely Moria I guess, he is the weakest, even though his ability is useful we can make without it as long as we can get someone who can grow as strong as Mihawk in the future."

All the old men nodded in unison.

Then one of the old men said:

"Who do we send to give him the invitation?"

The old man with the sunglasses gave out another suggestion:

"Let's send Garp he is the closest to the east-blue now, he is on a holiday in the calm belt."

The old men nodded, they had very high seniority and even though Garp was on a holiday he should listen to their orders, but it was very likely Garp would put a finger in his nose and fall asleep afterward. An asleep Garp couldn't even wake up by WhiteBeards shockwaves if he entered a deep sleep, he would wake up only when he wanted to!

However, everyone else was too far away from east-blue so they had to rely on Garp to send this message if Zoro refused Garp should know what to do.

Garp was on his gourmet holiday, drinking sake and catching his sea kings then eating them in sushi-style or barbecuing them over a huge fire he made on the middle of the ship, the captains and lieutenants under him looked with wide eyes as Garp ate a whole sea king then burped when a den-den mushi started to ring puru puru puru puru...

Gatchak, the snail's eyes suddenly had sunglasses over them and the voice of the old man was heard coming out of its mouth:

"Vice-Admiral Garp, we need you to send a message to a potential new Shichibukai, if he refuses you know what to do, but if he accepts Gecko Moria's Shichibukai status would be immediately cut off and his bounty unfrozen along with his crewmates, I want you to relay the news about this if he accepts."

Garp started picking his nose as he looked at the snail then said:

"I'm on holiday!"

The snail knew things were getting out of hand as Garp was prone to sudden bouts of anger if things didn't go as he wanted then said:

"You are the nearest to east-blue, this man is currently in the east-blue so we need you to do it, you can go back to your holiday after you finish this simple task, you should give us face as you should know who is calling you."

Garp started to clean his ears after he finished picking his nose then said:

"Should I give a damn about you old fogeys up there? Where were you when I was fighting the pirate king with Sengoku?"

The man coughed as the snail did the same action and then he said:

"Uh Garp, come on you know me, do this to me as a favor and I will get you those rice cookies that only world nobles get to enjoy, the special extra fluffy kind, please!"

Garp smiled as he heard the word rice cookies then he responded:

"Now that's more like it, I will see what I can do with that young lad!"

Garp closed his eyes as he started to expand his Observation Haki to find the strongest aura there was, he was in the calm belt near Logue Town, even though the old man didn't specify where they were supposed to be Garp guessed they could be in Logue Town or near the grand line entrance.

He found quite a strong aura and a familiar aura in Logue Town, it was the aura of his damn grandson and the supposed aura of the guy who was going to be a Shichibukai.

He patted the captain of his ship on the back which almost made him go through the deck of the ship then he said:

"Oh, you improved Captain Broloaf, go and set the destination for Logue Town you heard the man on the snail!"

Suddenly a snot bubble appeared at Garp's nose as he entered his sleeping mode, The captain didn't say anything as he sailed with Garp for quite a few years already and he knew of his antics the best, he made sure everything was okay on the deck then made the ship go towards Logue Town!

The ship sailed slowly towards Logue Town and Zoro suddenly felt a monstrous presence approaching Logue Town while sleeping Garp let his aura out for everyone to feel. Of course, this wouldn't affect people who didn't know Observation but for people who knew it was like a behemoth was approaching an ant ready to step on it!

There was no way to fight back in such a situation no way to run, Zoro was grunting as he suddenly cut off his connection with Observation to stop feeling the aura. Cold sweat appeared on Zoro's body as he shook his head and said:

"That aura is even stronger than Mihawk's, who could be such a monster?"

The ship approached Logue Town at quite high speeds as marine engineering was above the pirate one, the world government had the greatest scientist to live working for them Vegapunk! Of course, the marines would be outfitted with great machinery to help them in their endeavors.

Garp approached the strong presence and Zoro opened his eyes to see an old man with a strong build and tall physique who wore a white suit with blue tie white jacket under his suit and white shoes looking down on him, maybe it wasn't a great idea to turn off his Observation Haki Zoro thought.

The old man observed Zoro then nodded as he said:

"I'm vice-admiral Garp, I have been sent to invite you uh..."

Garp scratched the back of his head and asked:

"What's your name again?"

Zoro sweatdropped at Garp's antics then he remembered that this guy was supposed to be Luffy's grandfather!

Zoro sweated as his Observation Haki turned back on but he felt that Garp reined in his aura and now it was at normal levels, he shook his head as he responded:

"Roronoa Zoro."

Garp looked around and he spotted the flag that sported a straw hat and narrowed his eyes, he knew he felt Luffy's aura around but it seemed Zoro was in Luffy's crew or else he wouldn't be on his ship.

Garp looked at Zoro then said:

"I have been instructed to invite you to the Shichibukai, seven warlords of the sea, pirates who ally with the world government and get special privileges from the world government while they have to work with the world government sometimes in exchange."

Zoro narrowed his eyes at the invitation, now as a pirate, he didn't want to become affiliated with the world government for no reason, he saw the ugly parts of the marine's already.

He looked at Garp then asked:

"Who's in the Shichibukai?"

Garp started to count using his fingers then said loud enough for Zoro to hear but it seemed like he was reminiscing:

"Uh, that boy Mihawk, Kuma maybe, that lass Hancock, Crocodile, Moria, Doflamingo and uh uh who was the last one? Oh yeah, the Fishman guy Jinbei I think."

Zoro heard of some of the people but most of them were unknown to him as he didn't get his hands on the grand line wanted posters.

Garp continued:

"If you accept the invitation Gecko Moria will be taken out of the Shichibukai."

Zoro considered for a few seconds then said:

"I refuse."

Garp didn't mind the refusal and he asked:

"Why?"

Zoro just said a few words in exchange:

"Because Mihawk is a Shichibukai."

Garp nodded his head then said:

"I see."

Garp left the ship in a burst of Soru as he disappeared, he felt the aura of his son and he had some things he wanted to talk about with him, he decided to let Luffy be, he was already a pirate in name even though he didn't get a bounty yet, one was soon ready to get to him.

Dragon looked towards his father and he chuckled:

"What do I owe the pleasure father?"

Garp looked at his son and narrowed his eyes as he said:

"Every time I look at you I age ten more years boy."

But then he shook his head and he continued:

"But I don't blame you for what you are doing, I know you want to change what you saw when I first took you to the headquarters... I can't forgive myself for taking this path but I'm already too far in it, you are looking around for your son now aren't you?"

Dragon chuckled as he said:

"Of course he is my son, after all, I have some plans for him, well the plans are already made anything he would do from now on would be beneficial for us and not for the world government."

Garp shook his head and he said:

"I can say that I didn't see anything here today but in the future... If you show yourself to me or if Luffy does I can't be merciful at all, I'm still a marine and there still a few years before I'm able to retire. However, I will try to go easy on Luffy, as for you I can't promise the same thing."

Dragon chuckled as he said:

"I wouldn't want you to go easy on me anyway."

Suddenly Dragon transformed into a gust of wind which disappeared, the last message drifted by the wind appeared at Garp's ears:

"Make sure to take care of yourself old man."

Garp chuckled as he said:

"You do the same, son!"

Garp appeared on his ship as he said:

"We go back to the holiday, Roronoa refused, let's go!"

The captain thought that they were supposed to apprehend Zoro if he refused but a look from Garp stopped him from doing anything if Zoro wasn't in Luffy's crew Garp would have caught him here but since Luffy had such a strong crewmate who could help him get stronger he decided against it.

Finally, Luffy and the other's made their way back to the ship, Kuina looked a bit sad that it was going to be a long while before she could meet her sister again but there was not much she could do about it, She asked Tashigi if she wanted to join her crew but Tashigi was adamant in remaining a marine, even though they were family they were in two different factions now. She shook her head as she explained to Zoro what happened.

Zoro nodded his head, it wasn't a good thing that the next time they met the sisters could be enemies but there was not much that could be done, Tashigi was too stubborn.

Sanji was cooking something for the crew then he came with a few dishes, as they approached the red line he said something that took everyone's attention:

"I know of a ritual a crew would do before their they entered the grand line, it's supposed to bring out luck."

He took a barrel as he put his leg on it and he said:

"To find all blue."

Luffy followed in with the others:

"To become the pirate king!"

Usopp:

"To become a great warrior of the sea and find my father!"

Kaya:

"To become a great doctor that can do any kind of surgeries!"

Nami:

"To create a map of the world!"

Kuina:

"To become the world's greatest swordswoman!"

Zoro:

"To become the world's greatest swordsman!"

Then they lifted their legs and destroyed the barrel according to Sanji's instruction, they laughed in unison as the red-line was in view.

The grand line was just around the corner, an exciting adventure just behind the cape of the redline!


	24. A princess in need

Zoro looked towards the redline as it was going up in the skies, it seemed to never end as it's height was gigantic. Luffy's eyes transformed into stars as he looked at the mountain which had a current that was going upwards instead of downwards, he muttered to himself:

"What a mystery mountain."

Nami started to explain her theory on how the mountain was supposed to work but no one understood her, Kaya understood a bit but she was a doctor, not a navigator, Usopp also understood a bit due to his tinkering mind but he was at most an average engineer, maybe a blue-haired pervert would have understood what she tried to convey but he wasn't here.

Zoro meditated on the deck as the ship started to sail upwards on the current, everyone else started to try and sail the ship so it wouldn't hit the boulders or the gate that stood right in front of them!

The ship started deviating from course but with Luffy's gum-gum balloon the ship was saved from crashing in the mountain walls and collapsing into pieces, Usopp and Kaya sweated as they looked at Merry's almost instant demise, it was the last keepsake of Merry the butler so they wouldn't want to see it get destroyed.

Luffy grabbed on the railing and pulled himself back up after he used his balloon technique, Zoro gave him a thumbs up and Luffy laughed, then Zoro took a plank from seemingly nowhere, Luffy started to sweat, he wanted to train his observation even in this situation?

But Luffy didn't say anything and blindfolded himself and started to take the rain of blows coming from Zoro, sometimes he would dodge by a fluke, it wasn't Haki his senses just started to get a hold of Zoro's tempo, Zoro smiled then he immediately changed his tempo and cracked Luffy on the head with the plank creating a giant bump on it.

The ship was still going upwards but Luffy and Zoro were seemingly staying on the deck without being tied to anything like gravity weren't affecting them at all, the others were grabbing things for their dear life so they wouldn't fall off, only Kuina was like Zoro and Luffy, Sanji himself tried to imitate their behavior but he failed miserably and almost fell off the ship if it wasn't for Luffy's timely catch.

Just by sound alone, he found out that Sanji was falling and caught him before he could die or get possibly mortally wounded by falling from such a height.

Finally, they reached the peak of the redline and they quickly started to go down, their speed was extremely high as they plunged in the nearby waters, it was clear as the clouds that stood on the other part of the red line disappeared.

Zoro breathed in the air of the grand line, he finally reached it after a long while, he felt like it was time for a little celebration as they docked the ship at a nearby lighthouse where they met an old man named Crocus, he acted a bit strange at first which annoyed the whole crew but afterward he just kept reading his paper.

Crocus eyes narrowed as he looked at the wanted poster in the paper then at Zoro, it seemed he met a big shot already!

Sanji started cooking the elephant tuna he got in Logue Town as Zoro approached Nami and he asked:

"You got that log-pose in Logue Town as I asked you to?"

Nami stuck out her tongue at Zoro then took something out of her pocket, it was the log pose!

She put it on her arm and then watched as it started to point towards a nearby island, she nodded then said:

"So do we just follow the needle?"

Zoro nodded his head, Koshiro taught him a lot about the grand line so he knew a few things and what important items were needed to sail the grand line, even though their ship was decent for paradise they would still need to change it in the future, the new world would transform the Going Merry into trash.

Hopefully, both Kaya and Usopp would understand, if not... things would get a bit ugly.

Zoro ate with his crew as the elephant tuna melted in his mouth he couldn't lie to himself, even though Sanji was an annoying pervert he was an extremely good cook, however, he would never tell him that.

Luffy's eyes turned into stars as he shouted:

"Soo good!"

Crocus eyed the food himself, it was a bit of time since he last ate, Sanji looked at Crocus and saw how he eyed their food and took a plate with food and approached him:

"Hungry old man?"

Crocus nodded and took the plate and enjoyed the elephant tuna, Sanji smirked and said:

"If you want we can give you another plate, the elephant tuna was extremely big."

Crocus smiled, even though these guys were pirates it seemed like they were good guys, he thought to himself.

Suddenly the redline started to shake as a whale cries could be heard, Crocus let the plate down and jumped in the water swimming quickly then disappearing underwater.

Zoro, Luffy, and the others scratched the back of their heads at the same time and asked:

"What's with that old man?"

The shaking of the redline stopped along with the whale cries but the crew decided to ignore that, Crocus came back dragging two people with him, a blue-haired lady who wore white shorts a green vest and a purple-colored shirt underneath her hair was done in a ponytail and she wore white shoes.

And an orange-haired man who had a crown on his head and a nine tattoed on his right cheek, he wore green clothes that resembled royalties making him look like a budget king.

They wailed as they looked at Crocus like they were looking at a monster:

"Spare us old man, spare us, we won't go after the whale anymore!"

Crocus snorted as he looked at the both of them, it wasn't their first tango but Crocus decided it was time to give them a piece of his mind this time around, he was not going to be the good guy anymore, these guys found the hatch that led to the whale's insides and almost blew him up from the inside!

Crocus was almost pondering if to silence these guys but there was the chance Whiskey Peak would send more guys like them.

He shook his head as he saw their shivering forms, Sanji started to swoon as he saw the blue-haired lady and tried to help her up but she declined Sanji as he was a stranger and got up, Crocus decided to let them go but not without a warning:

"This is the last time I'm going easy on you, next time you will leave as bodies in the sea!"

Crocus the man who wore a floral shirt and white shorts with sandals who looked like a flower made it's on his bald head was pretty intimidating now as his glasses glinted in the sunlight.

Zoro even caught a few traces of Haki from the man:

"So the lighthouse is protected by this guy huh."

Zoro decided it wasn't any time to get into Crocus's business and decided to leave with his crew, there was nothing he wanted to see here anyway.

The Going Merry started to sail away from the lighthouse as the strange duo started to swim towards Whiskey Peak the nearby island since it's gravitation pull strung the needle of Nami's long pose they were moving to the same direction.

After a few hours of navigating towards the Whiskey Peak, they finally reached it but there was no one on the island, they looked around but they couldn't find anyone, Zoro snorted as he could feel countless living beings on the island but it seemed they didn't want to find them making them think that the island wasn't populated but Zoro decided against meddling with their affairs, if they didn't want to meet them then they wouldn't meet them.

Zoro eyed the strongest presence here and unleashed his saki (Killing intent) towards that direction making the man known as mister eight to shiver in fear as he looked at Zoro's eyes, the man gulped as he thought to himself:

"He can see me? How?"

But then Zoro moved his head from the man's location and he breathed out the breath that was he was unconsciously holding.

Zoro shook his head, everyone wasn't that strong here and they were hiding away from him and everyone else for some reason, he remembered something, however, these two guys from before looked quite shady and he was sure the woman called the man Mr nine, he knew of an organization that had these kinds of codenames he and Kuina were invited into it a long time ago.

Baroque Works! The organization was shady as the boss was unknown but Zoro decided that it wasn't his job to dismantle a criminal organization that he didn't know anything about, he decided to wait till the log pose set itself then leave.

Unfortunately, the log pose needed at least one day or two before it could set itself so they had to wait.

Finally, the strange duo arrived at Whiskey Peak and looked around in wonder as they saw no one.

They thought to themselves:

"Strange where is everyone?"

Suddenly a low voice could be heard:

"Pssht, over here Mr nine miss Wednesday."

Mr eight came forward from the shadows and told them about the pirate crew:

"That man over there is Roronoa Zoro with a bounty of 350,000,000 we can't deal with him, you know his bounty is even higher than *his*" he narrowed his eyes at miss Wednesday when he said his so she could understand.

Mr nine was completely lost in their conversation as he didn't know who they were talking about but his eyes bulged out when he heard the number of 350,000,000, this bounty was extremely high!

He decided to hide with Mr eight and the others so he wouldn't get cut into pieces by Zoro, he started sweating as he remembered how they met on Crocu's small island.

Zoro narrowed his eyes as he sensed the trio's interaction and finally decided to act, they were annoying hiding around like mice, he wondered for what reason?

Zoro quickly found himself near them as he said in a low voice:

"I wonder why you guys are hiding around like this?"

Mr eight paled as he looked behind him and found Zoro!

Mr eight finally stammered after a few seconds of being frozen:

"Mr deddddeemon swordssamaaan, Roroonoaaa Zoroo."

Zoro looked at him then said:

"Stop stammering you are a man!"

Mr eight coughed a bit then said:

"Mr demon swordsman we weren't hiding it's just uh, we are scared of pirates, we are just villagers."

Zoro shook his head and looked at the nearby giant cactus and said:

"Hmm, quite the high population you had in the past, so many gravestones."

Mr eight eyes widened, did Roronoa Zoro realize what they were doing on this island?

Zoro smiled as he looked at Mr eight's reaction and continued:

"Are you perhaps from Baroque works?"

Mr eight finally turned hostile at his words as he suddenly took a gun shaped like a saxophone and tried to shoot it at Zoro, Zoro easily dodged the bullets with his Observation and quickly approached Mr eight and chopped him directly in the neck with his hand making him go limp on the ground.

Miss Wednesday was ready to scream her lungs out, Igaram was her guardian and protector and this pirate took him out like it was nothing for him!

Princess Vivi of Alabasta knew she had a bad day today, first, she failed the mission of recovering the whale meat and now a pirate with a bounty higher than Crocodile made his way over to Whiskey Peak and incapacitated her guardian and good friend!

But this wasn't the worst of what could happen today, it took a while for the duo to arrive at Whiskey Peak so it was already past noon and it was approaching six o clock.

Suddenly a burst of jarring laughter could be heard coming from seemingly nowhere:

"Kya kya it seems we don't even have to do anything right Mr. Five?"

A bored voice sounded from nearby:

"Miss Valentine you gave out our position to the enemy, quite unprofessional."

A blonde-haired woman wearing a helmet and a lemon inspired dress started flying out of the sky as she was holding an umbrella

A black man with messy hair sunglasses and a red coat came from behind some houses as he said to Miss Wednesday:

"Quite the troublesome one aren't you miss Vivi princess of Alabasta, knowing the boss's secret, tsk tsk he sent us to make sure you can't spread it around."

This commotion attracted the other straw hats over here and they asked Zoro what everything was about, Zoro explained as best as he could:

"Seems this blue-haired girl called Vivi is a princess and she knows this organization boss secret so they sent someone to silence her."

Luffy nodded his head as it all made sense to him but he didn't understand anything that Zoro said.

Sanji immediately went into his white knight mode and tried to attack Mr. Five as he couldn't attack Miss Valentine, suddenly Sanji was blown backward by a literal explosion!

The black man with sunglasses known as Mr. Five chuckled as he threw another bugger towards Sanji and he said:

"I ate the explosion-explosion fruit, and now I'm an explosion man! Come try and attack me again you curly eyebrowed freak!"

Sanji's eyes transformed into a fire as he quickly ran towards Mr. Five and gave him a good kick in the stomach pushing him back, he trained himself with Nami Usopp and the others so he grew a bit stronger than he was before, he felt that Mr. Five wouldn't be a problem for him to handle even though the man had a devil fruit.

Zoro looked as Sanji fought back and forth with Mr. Five to help Vivi but he thought that he wasn't particularly interested in helping the princess, she had nothing to do with him but Luffy wanted to help as well as he threw himself at the floating woman and punted her into the dirt making her go unconscious immediately, it didn't seem she was particularly strong or useful.

Of course, Luffy was a monster, Miss Valentine was a devil fruit user who ate the kilo-kilo fruit which let her change her weight, Luffy took her by surprise and knocked her out while she was as light as a feather.

Mr. Five grunted as Sanji broke one of his ribs with a kick then suddenly Sanji shouted:

"Anti Manner Kick Course." he took a handstand and started to spin his legs kicking him in the head numerous times and breaking his glasses, this fight was done as well.

Igaram finally came to as he saw both Mr. Five and Miss valentine being knocked out cold by the pirates he wanted to help but Vivi immediately gave him the news.

Igaram straightened himself out as he introduced himself and Vivi:

"Igaram head-butler of Alabsta royal family and she is princess Vivi Nefertari of Alabasta, I'm thankful for your help!"

Sanji shook his head and said:

"We didn't help you, we only found these guys to be eyesores."

Zoro scoffed at Sanji's words, Sanji was salivating when he was looking at Vivi, he wondered what was going through the perverts mind.

Luffy as clueless as ever walked forward and asked:

"What's up?"

Zoro shook his head, Luffy was as direct as ever. Vivi directly expressed her concerns about her father's and her Kingdom and how Crocodile acted against them making villains in the front of their people, they framed the royal family making the citizens think that they used dance powder to make the capital take all the rain.

A sudden click was heard from the skies as the Unluckies the information gathering otter and vulture took a picture of everyone's faces, unfortunately for the animals as their name indicated they were unlucky as Zoro quickly found their location and ended their little lives with a flying slash.

They dropped from the sky in front of Vivi as she gasped and put a hand at her mouth, the swordsman easily killed the duo that could make big problems from them.

Vivi pondered and asked:

"Maybe you guys could help me?"

Nami as the opportunist she was immediately said:

"Maybe for the small price of a billion bellies?"

Vivi sweatdropped even if she sold the Kingdom they would barely get a billion bellies, the price was too high!

Vivi knew these guys were pirates but they were very black-hearted!

Sanji continued his white knight tirade as he said:

"Of course I will help you Vivi-chawn, I can be your knight in shining armor!"

Luffy was undecided as he looked towards Zoro, he seemed to rely on Zoro more and more these days as Zoro was becoming like a big brother to him, Zoro actually reminded Luffy of Ace, always cool and stronger than him.

Kuina and Kaya were women with soft hearts so they wanted to help Vivi with her plight, however, Zoro wasn't interested that much, he suddenly felt a voice that tried to hide, the voice was very good at masking its presence but Zoro could still feel it, while it was good at masking its presence it didn't know Observation Haki so it couldn't mask it's aura as well.

He decided to play it by the ear as the presence was relatively strong, but for him, it still wasn't any problem even if tens of presences like these attacked. He was worried about the others of the crew who were relatively weaker.

Kuina and Kaya approached Vivi and patted her on the back as they said:

"Maybe we can help you..."

Zoro shook his head as he said:

"We can help I guess."

Everyone wanted to help Vivi and he couldn't just tell them no, especially since Kuina wanted to help, he could disregard Usopp's Sanji's and Luffy's opinions but not Kuina's he decided to end everything fast with this Crocodile who was a warlord of the sea, get to him fast and cut him in two, he was a logia so he wouldn't think he had Haki, take him by surprise and end him. He already wanted to go to the new world and there was no time to waste for him!

Of course, along the way, he could train the others so they could survive the new world with him.

The new world would be like a sharpening stone for him, he would be the sword who will be able to cut through everything and reach the peak and even surpass it!

A will burned deep in his eyes, a will that wasn't his but combined with his which led to a mutation of his original one, naturally, Zoro wouldn't have Conquerors Haki but due to the fusion of his memories and will with Miyamoto's he unlocked it he just didn't know how to use it properly yet as Koshiro didn't teach him about the third Haki.

Vivi was certainly happy that such a strong pirate crew decided to help her, Igaram wanted to become a decoy to help Vivi escape safely but Zoro stopped him and said:

"Ok you can get out now, I know you are hiding!"

A woman with dark-ish tanned skin appeared from behind a nearby house, she had dark hair and wore a cowgirl outfit, she had blue eyes and quite the big asset on her. Zoro narrowed his eyes as he didn't recognize her at all.

Kuina took some wanted posters that she got at Logue Town and looked over them then she said:

"Nico Robin, it's you?"

Robin chuckled as she looked over at Kuina and she said:

"Oho aren't I a little bit famous? I just came over because Mr. Zoro called me over, I wanted to give you a piece of advice but I think you don't need it anymore, I think I will take my leave already."

Vivi muttered to herself:

"Nico Robin, she works with Mr. Zero aka Crocodile!"

Zoro decided to not stop Robin as she didn't have any bad intentions in her aura, it seemed she genuinely wanted to give them advice but decided not to after she was found out by Zoro.

Zoro shook his head as he didn't understand what that woman was thinking about, Kuina walked over to Zoro and put a hand over his and said:

"I think that woman is bad news Zoro."

Zoro didn't know what to say to Kuina so he just nodded at her, Igaram left afterward crudely dressed in imitation of Vivi's clothes and some lipstick since Robin already left he easily disappeared over the horizon in a small ship.

Vivi walked towards the Going Merry, she didn't know that her decision right here would change her life forever.


	25. Little big garden

Zoro was staying in the crow's nest observing the crew with his Haki, there was nothing special happening at the moment, the girls were talking with Vivi, while the boys were training after they finished their talking the girls got to training as well while Vivi watched.

Vivi didn't understand the crew's training regiment because it was something extremely harsh for her, even the troops they trained back home in Alabasta didn't use such hard training techniques like the straw hats.

She decided to take note of some of their training techniques and implement them in their troop's training, it seemed like they were pretty helpful, Zoro got down from the crow's nest and started to train Luffy in Haki, Vivi got bored watching them train and decided to go to the kitchen to read something.

The training intensified as hours passed afterward they ate some good food prepared by Sanji and continued on the way the log pose was pointing, along the way they found themselves in snowstorms extreme heat and even springtime. There were no such things as seasons on the grand line everything was random, there were seasonal islands where only one season dominated the island but while sailing you could encounter all kinds of climates.

Vivi started to adapt to the crew's lifestyle as they were all jovial and happy, well besides Zoro he was always serious, even though it seemed like he didn't care about his crew on the surface if he didn't care he wouldn't have created a crew in the first place, he expressed himself through training others and making them stronger, he couldn't be in multiple places at the same time, what if he encountered a strong opponent that took all his attention and the others were too weak to protect themselves?

He had to make sure every member of his crew was strong enough to deal with the adversities of the new world, Koshiro made sure to emphasize how the new world was nothing like paradise and it would make the climate change here look like a child's play.

The enemies would all mostly know Haki as well so till they reached the new world all of his crewmates should know at least one type of Haki, the new world wasn't a children game, it was a battle of life and death and all of their dreams resided in there, if they wanted to survive and achieve their dreams they had to have a corresponding strength or they would just become bones along the way.

It seemed like Zoro knew what loss felt like but it was the phantom experiences of Miyamoto, even though the Asura spirit from Zoro's soul purged the useless memories some of them such like the sense of loss would be helpful to Zoro as it would toughen him up and make him more vigilant, he wouldn't want to feel such a thing himself, he got attached to the crew somewhat and he would become angry if anything happened to them.

After they finished training they decided to take a day off to cool off their muscles, they still needed rest days in between training so they wouldn't tear their muscles too much, even though Sanji's food was very nutritious and it helped their physique quite a lot there was still a need of a day of rest, his food wasn't magical. Maybe in the future when he will meet with a certain drag queen and ran for a year straight he would get some magical recipes from him/her.

Zoro looked around and could spot a nearby island there he felt two giant presences! they were giants on the island, even though the island was quite far away Zoro could enhance his eyes with Haki so he could see farther, it was a relatively easy use of Observation, Zoro was still discovering the potential of Observation as he trained it further.

He didn't feel any other presence on the island besides the giants, he could feel another giant presence near the island but it seemed to be a sea king of some sort, if it didn't decide to attack them then he wouldn't bother with it.

Zoro shouted towards the crew:

"We are very near to the next island, but it's somewhat different I can feel that there are two giants on it and there's also several animals with average strength on it."

Sanji puffed up a cigarette and said:

"Good we can resupply there then, the stronger the animal the stronger the taste."

He inhaled the last amount of smoke from the cigarette a few moments later then threw away the butt.

Luffy eyes transformed into stars as he said:

"Giants?"

Usopp was also interested in giants as he asked:

"Giants? huh seems interesting."

Usopp was a lot tamer than before, he would have jumped around and acted like Luffy if he didn't have his near-death situation with Kuro, he was more serious now, even though he was interested in the Giants he wasn't going to jump around and he would act more serious than before.

Zoro nodded his head at Usopp's words then said:

"I guess we can only wait after we resupply, maybe the giants know how much time it takes for the log-pose to set, we can ask them."

Nami nodded her head, they didn't have much time according to Vivi's words, the rebels from Alabasta were getting ready to fight it out with the imperial army of the king, things weren't looking good at all for Alabasta and it's citizens.

They sailed quickly towards the island and docked at a nearby grove. They left Vivi and her duck on the ship and went exploring, each of the crewmates took down a dinosaur easily and came back with them where Zoro cut them into pieces so they could be stored easily, Sanji would later smoke the meat so it could last longer.

Before they could go searching for the giants a giant who wore a spiked helmet over his head with a blue scarf and iron armor over his body came forward, he had long hair on his head and sandals on his feet, he also had a long flowing beard.

He started laughing out loud as he looked at the straw hats:

"Bara bara bara bara, My name's Dorry the warrior of Elbaf might I ask you if you have some rum you could share with me?"

They had plenty of room and they also had to ask something of him so they gave him a barrel of room wich the giant happily took and downed in a few seconds then Zoro came forward and asked:

"Mr. Dorry, might I ask you how much time it would take for the log pose to set on this island?"

Dorry took a pondering look on his face as he put his giant face under his long beard then said:

"Two to three years."

Vivi's eyes widened as her mouth went wide open, in two to three years Crocodile would have already made Alabasta into a history country!

Zoro narrowed his eyes at the response there was nothing much he could do here about this, he couldn't change the magnetic waves of the island, at most they could start to sail aimlessly as the eternal pose to Alabasta went with Igaram.

Zoro sighed as he looked at Vivi's terrified expression, he didn't know how to appease her fear but Kaya Kuina and Nami came forward and told her that everything would be alright, maybe they could find a nearby island who had an eternal pose towards Alabasta or their magnetic waves could point them towards Alabasta.

They were simply unlucky, if Zoro didn't kill the unluckies back then on Whiskey peak they could have reported to Crocodile and he would have sent assassins with Alabasta's eternal pose which they could snatch after defeating the assassins. However, Zoro's action changed what was supposed to happen and thus they had no eternal pose.

They will have to aim blindly towards Alabasta. Zoro scratched the back of his neck as he felt something sting him back in the jungle but he didn't bother with it, his body was extremely tempered and strong, he felt the bug try to inject something into his bloodstream but he squeezed the poison out with his neck muscles alone, it still stang a bit but he felt Ok.

However, Kaya wasn't as lucky as him a few days after they left the island she started to sweat intensely and her temperature went beyond what a normal human should be able to endure, somehow she was still alive.

Kaya's eyes were wide open as she felt her condition, she was a doctor but she didn't know much about poisons and she knew she encountered quite a strong one, the poison Kuro used on Usopp was quite an average one as he couldn't get his hands on a strong one on the small island where they lived.

Kaya knew she couldn't do anything to this type of poison it was too strong! It might even affect Luffy if he would get bitten by the bug, she knew she couldn't do the same thing as she did with Kuro's poison, they needed to find a medical expert that knew about this poison!

Unfortunately, they were at sea, Usopp immediately realized that something was wrong with the woman he liked, especially that she looked even worse than when she was poisoned by Kuro every day.

Kaya finally relented telling them about her condition, she didn't want to burden Vivi with her condition as they had to rush towards Alabasta, today they got a newspaper that they didn't show Vivi, it was about the current situation in Alabasta and it wasn't particularly nice, but Kaya Nami and Kuina decided to finally show it to her as Kaya stood in her bed, Vivi's mouth opened wide in fear and apprehension as she looked at what was written on the paper "Rebels started the fight with Imperial Army in Alabasta see more at page 32"

Nami shook her head and said:

"You decided if we try to rush to Alabasta or not, we can only wonder aimlessly anyway, hopefully, we can find an island that can cure Kaya's affliction before it's too late as well."

Usopp barged in the room and shouted:

"We can't let Kaya die! We should focus on finding an island with a doctor!"

Nami was on the same page with Usopp but they waited for Vivi's words, Kuina just stood there and took care of Kaya's needs occasionally.

Fortunately, her body wasn't as weak as it was before as it got healed from the poisoning of Kuro and she also got stronger through training if not the poison would have killed her already.

Usopp walked towards Kaya and clutched her hand, he couldn't see himself losing her, even though he didn't express himself directly Kaya knew he had feelings for her as he knew she had feelings for him, they were just too shy to act on them. However Usopp decided that if Kaya lived through this he would make sure their relationship would become real and official just like Zoro's and Kuina's, Usopp started to catch up on what they were doing when they left, he wasn't that dumb. Only Luffy remained oblivious.

As they sailed they started to go through an icy climate that wouldn't change, that meant a winter island was nearby!

Zoro watched in wonder as a man who seemingly stood on the ocean asked:

"Cold day today isn't it?"

Luffy eyebrows rose as he looked at the man and muttered to himself:

"What a mystery man?"

Zoro shook his head as he felt the auras of the people below the man, it seemed they had a submarine of some short if they became hostile Zoro would cut them all in pieces.

At the mention of pieces Zoro remembered he still had Buggy's devil fruit stashed somewhere on the ship and he told everyone but not in a high voice so the unknown people wouldn't hear, he didn't want the new crewmates to accidentally eat the fruit:

"There's a devil fruit on the ship, it looks like a pineapple please don't eat it if you don't want the power of being apple to split yourself up into pieces."

Kaya was unconscious so she didn't know anything about it but Usopp didn't seem interested in it neither Sanji.

Afterward, the auras on the submarine started to turn hostile so Zoro did the only sensible thing he could do.

He unsheathed one sword and cut the submarine in two letting the people on it either surface or drown.

A bunch of people with surgical masks on that looked like doctors surfaced, one of them was injured but another of the doctors was quickly helping him by sewing his injury with very high precision.

Zoro's eyes shined, doctors were on that submarine? very good. Luffy started fishing the doctors out of the waters at Zoro's instructions and Zoro directly dragged them towards Kaya's room and said:

"Any opinions on how she should be healed?"

The number of doctors amounted to ten, nine if you didn't count the unconscious one, all nine of them shook their heads as they said:

"We don't work with this kind of type of illnesses, we are surgeons."

Zoro muttered something to himself under his breath that was indiscernible to the doctors then shook his head, he was ready to throw the doctors back into the cold waters but one doctor suddenly perked up and said:

"We are from a nearby island and we were forced to work for the tyrannical king who is now drowned, there's a witch that lives there that should know how to heal this young miss, the island isn't very far away and the symptoms while advanced aren't in their terminal phase, we can rush there now."

It seemed Zoro and the others were in luck, there was a witch who lived nearby who could heal Kaya!

The doctor continued:

"However her healing costs are quite high and she has a peculiar temperament, also she lives in a quite distant place but we know how to get there fast, just take us to the island and we will help you out since you took care of Wapol, the citizens of the island will also be happy that we came back, they needed us back on the island more than anything but we were forced by Wapol to not help them."

The doctor sighed as the others didn't say anything, it seemed he was the spokesman for the other doctors.

Zoro nodded his head and with the instructions from the doctor they started to sail towards the island known as Drum Island!

Hopefully, they could quickly alleviate Kaya's situation and afterward finish the Alabasta business, even then it would still take them a while to get to the new world, hopefully, they would all be trained up enough.

After a little while, Usopp shouted as he looked at the winter island with a giant mountain in the middle of it:

"Land-ho!"

Vivi looked towards the island, hopefully, they could quickly heal Kaya, she couldn't wait much anymore, her country needed her, her father needed her, her friend Koza needed her.

Unfortunately for her things weren't always going to go as she wanted to, a burst of strange laughter could be heard on the island as a dark patch of land appeared and sucked a lot of snow and a few houses in:

"Zehahahaha, this island is pretty good, let's see what kind of loot can I get from it."

It seemed like an unknown enemy was making problems for the people of Drum Island.

Zoro unsheathed his swords, as soon as the giant patch of darkness appeared he knew he found an opponent that he could finally test his powers against, and it wasn't going to be an easy one!


	26. The power of the darkness fruit

As Zoro extended his aura his spirit clashed with an aura that was like a literal black hole, everything around it was sucked into it and its greediness knew no bounds!

A 'huh' was heard from the island as a dark-skinned man with a relatively big nose and missing teeth started to ignore the defenders of the islands as he muttered to himself:

"Someone with Observation Haki in paradise?"

The man wore a white shirt and green camo pants and sandals, he also had a red sash tied around his rotund belly and a small black beard, he had a crimson bandana on his head and shaggy dark hair.

Near him stood a hulking man who wore a fighter overall and a champion belt around his belly, he had a luchador mask on his face and purple hair, he looked over at his boss as he seemingly stopped using his devil fruit powers and asked:

"Boss are you ok?"

Marshall D. Teach or otherwise now known as Blackbeard frowned as he started to sense around with his rudimentary Observation skills, even since his youth he tried to find the perfect devil fruit and when he joined WhiteBeards crew he forgone some of his Haki training and decided to search for it, somehow his crewmate Tatch got his hands on the devil fruit and he killed him to take it from him.

Even though Blackbeard's Haki wasn't advanced his devil fruit made it so he didn't even need to have advanced Haki as it weakened the devil fruit powers of those he used his powers against, of course, he would be at a disadvantage against someone who had more advanced Haki but he was in paradise, people didn't even know about Haki around here!

At first, he decided to get his devil fruit then make up for his Haki with a few years of training. A man with a giant sniper rifle was waiting nearby and looked at how Blackbeard was frowning, he had a monocle over his left eye with a target on it, he wore large overalls and a blue cape, a man that looked like he came out of some sewer on a deadly sick horse also appeared nearby, he seemed like he could fall over at any time but the horse just didn't do it.

Blackbeard then looked over at the harbor where Zoro's aura was coming from and decided to investigate, it wasn't that important for him to steal from the Drum Island citizens, he only came here to get some fun before he decided to get ahold of the new super rookie and give him to the marines so he could become a new Shichibukai, things were heard around that Jinbei the Fishman wanted to abdicate the position for some reason.

Zoro with swords unsheathed told his crewmates:

"This guy here is bad news and Kaya is still sick, you guys go towards the giant mountain meet the witch and heal her up, I will deal with these guys here."

Luffy wanted to protest saying he wanted to fight as well, he felt way stronger than before with all the training, Sanji wanted to join too but Zoro shook his head and said:

"I'm not sure if you could be helpful but Ok, you need more serious fights to grow, Usopp Nami Kuina you guys should go with the doctors and make sure Kaya gets to be taken care of."

Usopp nodded his head heavily, he needed to take care of Kaya, he took her from inside the ship and strapped her on his back, he followed the doctors as Luffy Sanji and Zoro walked towards the commotion.

Blackbeard frowned as he looked at Zoro's face which appeared he took a wanted poster from the pocket of the white shirt he had on and looked at Zoro then the wanted poster then started laughing:

"Zehazehahaha, it seems I didn't even have to search for you, Demon Blade Zoro, you just came up yourself to me, make's things easier."

Blackbeard looked towards the luchador looking fellow and said:

"Burgess take care of his friends while I will fight with Demon Blade, Van Augur provide support fire, Doc Q you do your things alright?"

Doc Q coughed and acknowledged while Burgess started laughing:

"Wehaaa, it's time to get this show started boss."

Van Augur the sniper nodded his head pensively like he didn't care and put the giant sniper rifle in front of him while he started to run around.

Zoro frowned as he sensed the powers of the man's crewmates but then shook his head, Sanji and Luffy were fortunately strong enough to take care of them, Doc Q was weak while Burgess was a bit below Luffy and Sanji as for Van Augur at least Luffy was immune to bullets as for Sanji...

Hopefully, he would learn something in this fight that would get him through it.

Luffy looked towards Burgess then started to run quickly towards him he already had his target, Van Augur suddenly pulled the trigger of his giant gun and hit Luffy directly between the brows but the bullet ricocheted towards Burgess hitting him directly in the stomach making him start bleeding.

Burgess looked towards Van and shouted at him:

"YOU DAMN UGH, HOW COULD YOU SHOOT ME INSTEAD OF HIM!"

Van Augur looked as before and he responded in the same way:

"I guess the boy has a devil fruit power, it seems I'm useless against him, I will try to shoot the blonde one with the curly eyebrow, for now, hold on."

But before he could continue his sentence Sanji appeared near him and tried to kick him in the head and end the fight right there and then, unfortunately for Sanji the man was quick on his feet and ran away immediately.

Doc Q coughed then started to throw apples around which when it rolled by Luffy's feet it exploded and threw Luffy into the air!

Burgess jumped after him and used a piledriver technique on him ramming him into the snow, but Luffy got out easily then patted his clothes so he could get rid of the snow. He cracked his neck then started to stretch his arm backward while running forward towards Burgess while shouting:

"Gum-Gum Pistol!"

Luffy's arm snapped right where it was before coming back with quick speeds, the arm was so fast Burgess couldn't dodge as his specialty wasn't speed. He could only toughen his muscles up to take the punch directly, Luffy intentionally or unintentionally hit the same spot that Burgess was shot in making him flinch in pain as he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Luffy started to attack Burgess with a flurry of punches to take the advantage he created for himself, Sanji tried to catch Van Augur but he was too fast!

Fortunately, Sanji had his ace in the hole when it came to speed, as he trained with Nami and the others he started to realize that he could run even faster than before, even though it wasn't a huge improvement it should be enough for him to catch Augur and cave his skull in with a precise kick.

Zoro was tense as he observed Blackbeard's movements he knew he couldn't let his guard down against his opponent as he still didn't know which kind of devil fruit the man ate.

Suddenly Blackbeard put a hand in front of him and shouted:

"Korouzu!"

Zoro felt a strong gravity taking a hold of his body as it wanted to take him directly into Blackbeard's dark hand where the suction force was coming from!

Zoro remembered that Haki was supposedly easing the effects or even erasing the effects of devil fruit owners if the Haki was more advanced than the devil fruit owners, Zoro's feet were getting dragged around as trenches appeared in the snow when suddenly he transformed into a dark metal man, he encased his whole body into Armament Haki in its advanced hardening form!

Blackbeard's eyes narrowed as he looked at Zoro's Haki, he knew he couldn't use his devil fruit powers without getting near to him anymore, his haki looked a tiny bit more advanced than his own even though he didn't focus on it.

Suddenly Zoro started to through the motions of a sword technique as the image of a dragon appeared behind him then he transformed into a dragon himself!

An Azure Dragon of giant proportions rushed towards Blackbeard as Zoro's voice came from the dragon's mouth:

"Three sword style: Azure dragon rush!"

Blackbeard grunted as he took the blow with his body and a slash appeared on his big belly, but the slash wasn't deep as it was only a surface wound.

Zoro frowned as he backpedaled away from Blackbeard, the man was extremely sturdy, actually, his body seemed a bit too strong!

It was strange like his body was made from a material he couldn't truly cut!

Blackbeard looked at his wound and put a hand over it suddenly the wound disappeared!

But Blackbeard stamina seemed to have sapped a bit after the wound healed, Zoro wondered if he used his devil fruit or did he know a particular technique that healed him.

Blackbeard started rushing towards Zoro as he put his hand down on the ground:

"Blackhole!"

A giant hole of darkness appeared on the ground which started to drag Zoro into it, even though he still had his Haki activated that didn't mean he was fully immune to Blackbeard's devil fruit, it could only weaken his effects and it seemed Blackbeard started to use his Haki too!

Sanji looked over at Zoro as he suddenly appeared over at Van Augur and tried to kick him in the head but Van Augur dodged and took a shot directly towards Sanji's lower area wanting to make him a eunuch!

Sanji almost transformed when he realized what the man wanted to do, that was his little friend down there, and he didn't even meet anyone else yet too! He couldn't lose him!

Sanji dodged by the hair of his teeth as the bullet lodged itself in his left leg, Sanji's speed started to take a worse turn as his leg was injured and Van Augur immediately created space between them, he aimed at Sanji's forehead and he was ready to launch another shot!

Time started to slow for Luffy as he looked at Sanji, there was no way the cook could dodge Van Augur's shot, Burgess was injured but he still had some fight in him but he decided to ignore him and started to run towards Sanji wanting to intercept the bullet for him.

Van Augur smiled as he put his hand over the trigger, one second, two seconds, three seconds, the shot was taken and the bullet started flying towards Sanji's head ready to pierce directly through it!

Luffy's perception of time seemed to slow down as he seemingly saw how Sanji's head blew up and all his gray matter started to spread on the white snow on the ground blood seeping into it transforming it creating blood flowers below.

Suddenly before the vision could become true Luffy's skin started to turn pink and he appeared in front of Sanji and redirected the bullet right back to Van Augur, his pinkish skin turned back to normal and the bullet hit Van Augur in his shooting arm virtually incapacitating him for the rest of the fight.

Doc Q and his steed known as stronger suddenly appeared out of nowhere at their location and threw some kind of gas at them, Luffy knew he shouldn't inhale the gas while Sanji was still shocked at his near-death situation Luffy took him by the waist and started running.

Fortunately, the gas's speed was quite slow so they could escape from its range in time.

Zoro didn't have time to look over as he was still clashing with Blackbeard, he hoped that the duo was Ok.

Blackbeard suddenly took a horse stance as he said:

"Blackhole liberation!"

A bunch of houses started to be thrown at Zoro from the black hole that Blackbeard opened around him which Zoro started cutting down at high speeds.

It was a good opening for Zoro!

Zoro suddenly started running towards Blackbeard as he started spinning his swords while muttering:

"Nothing can stop me, there's one dream and that's the one be at the top, killing my way through thousands of armies, decapitating the wicked helping the unlucky, Three swords style secret technique: Three hundred thousands worlds decapitation full-body hardening!"

Zoro cut directly through all the debris and appeared behind Blackbeard as he sheathed his swords and started panting heavily, this technique drained him of his Haki as well as his stamina and strength, hopefully, it would be enough to take care of Blackbeard.

Blackbeard suddenly vomited a mouthful of blood as countless tiny slashes appeared on his body which he then made disappear, but the damage was still done!

Blackbeard looked at Zoro with anger in his eyes then he used his devil fruit powers to absorb his crewmates, he was injured and while Zoro was exhausted he didn't think it was worth to fight it to the death with him, he felt Zoro was still holding something back, as he didn't use his ace in the hole as well, the fight would be too taxing and if a third party appeared the loss for him would be gigantic, as Ace was still on his trail!

Maybe he was nearby if he detected the climax of the fight with his Observation Haki and came while Blackbeard was weakened there was a chance he could actually die before he could attain his ambition!

Blackbeard sighed as his rotund body suddenly started running at high speeds! How could such a fatso run so fast was unknown but Zoro was too tired to run after him, Luffy tried to stop him but a gut punch from Blackbeard almost incapacitated him, Luffy coughed up a mouthful of blood as he looked at Blackbeard running away then jumping into a small dinghy afterward he used his devil fruit powers to make it disappear on the horizon at high speeds.

Zoro sighed as he looked at the man, he didn't know who he was but he was extremely dangerous! If the man had a better Haki technique than him he could have lost miserably, his devil fruit power was extremely strong!

Zoro looked around and used his Haki to feel the location of his crewmates then smiled as he felt them on the top of the mountain along with two different auras, he indicated to Luffy and Sanji that they should go as well.

They had to make sure Kaya would get treated by the witch, so that meant they needed to fork out quite a bit of money...


	27. Tony Tony Chopper

Blackbeard heaved a sigh as he suddenly vomited a mouthful of blood then clutched his chest then threw out all of his crewmates from his darkness pocket space, Burgess coughed out a bit of blood as well then said:

"Boss I didn't think we would take a loss in paradise, who is that guy?"

Blackbeard looked at each of his crewmates and then said:

"Where's that damn bastard, Lafitte?"

Seemingly out of nowhere Lafitte made his presence known, he wore a dark blue overall with tiny pink stars on it and tap shoes, he had a tophat dark purple hair and dark lipstick on his lips, he had a cane in his hand.

Lafitte bowed to Blackbeard then said:

"You called Captain?"

Blackbeard was fuming, this guy was an expert at stealth if he didn't want to make himself seen he would just disappear as if he wasn't there, Blackbeard then looked again at him then asked:

"Why didn't you help us?"

Lafitte chuckled then said:

"Dear Captain you know that fighting is not my strong ace, after all, I'm your navigator and that swordsman fellow looked pretty strong, maybe if he was a tiny bit weaker I would have joined you..."

Blackbeard mumbled something to himself then said:

"We will need a replacement I'm not strong enough to deal with this super rookie, we need to capture someone else, the plan must go on after I get the second power I should be able to easily deal with this Demon Blade Zoro."

The crew said in unison:

"Of course Captain!"

They started to sail away to a destination they had previously talked upon.

Zoro sighed as he sheathed his sword and he looked at his two crewmates, Luffy's fight was alright in his opinion he did well against the big buff guy but Sanji thoroughly disappointed him, if he was going to remain in this crew and also remain in one piece, he needed to train harder.

Zoro shook his head and started walking towards the giant mountain ignoring the strange looks the villagers gave him, they seemed to be filled with gazes of apprehension fear and also admiration.

Sanji and Luffy followed him along as they trudged towards the lift that would take them towards the top of the mountain. The doctors and the remainder of the crewmates already sent it back for them and they easily scaled the mountain up the top where they met with Kuina Nami Usopp and Vivi.

Nami and Kuina sighed as they looked at Sanji and Luffy's injuries, Zoro himself looked pretty ruffled and his clothes were in tatters due to the fight with Blackbeard, he also took some damage from his devil fruit but it wasn't anything major he would heal in a few days at most.

Out of the giant castle came an old woman that looked so old that she might fall and die in the next second, well that would be her face because her body looked similar to Nami's! and Nami was eighteen years old!

Zoro mumbled to himself:

"No wonder they call her a witch."

Sanji firstly looked at the body and he almost had a nosebleed then he saw the face and transformed into a stone statue.

The woman chuckled to herself as she saw Sanji's reaction, she wore a relatively revealing outfit for her age consisting in a purple jacket and a floral undershirt with some tight pants and some boots, she had her hair in a ponytail and had glasses, it seemed even though she looked young she couldn't heal her eyesight.

Zoro coughed a bit then said:

"How much do we owe you?"

He already heard from the doctors on how she would ask for gigantic prices for her work but she had a one hundred percent accuracy on healing her patients, The witch mumbled to herself then looked back at the castle than at Zoro:

"You don't owe me anything, it's enough of a payment you took care of that fat bastard Wapool, good riddance, you even took back the doctors for this island, the citizens of the island will be rather happy about that."

Even though she was a supposed witch on the surface she really cared about the island's people, out of the corner of the palace a little reindeer looking humanoid tried to hide but he was on the wrong place of the door making himself visible rather easily.

Luffy's eyes became stars as he quickly started running towards the reindeer looking humanoid while saying:

"What a cool looking guy!"

He had stars in his eyes and everything, but before Luffy could get further the witch walked in front of him and stopped his charge then said:

"You are going to frighten my little assistant with that, please even though you are the saviors of this island and its kingdom I don't care about anything else, I already paid you back by not charging you, you know the ingredients are quite expensive, the poison was deadly and extremely old, did you children wandered around a prehistorical island while not being fully covered?"

Nami Usopp and Kuina coughed while Zoro scratched his head, Luffy just answered simply:

"Yeah, we did how do you know that? are you a witch who also sees the past?"

Nami facepalmed at Luffy's stupidity while the woman laughed then looked at Luffy:

"You aren't the smartest of the crew are you?"

Luffy chuckled then said:

"No that would be Kaya, she is our doctor!"

A shocked look appeared on the woman's face then she said:

"Your doctor doesn't even know to heal such an affliction?"

Usopp interjected:

"Well you see Kaya just recently started to learn about such things, after all, she isn't a poison expert, she said she wanted to expand in the branch of surgery..."

The tiny reindeer human said with a soft tone of voice:

"As a true doctor you can't expand in only one branch, you should learn everything you can!"

Of course, doing that would make you a jack of all trades but master of none, however, being on the sea a jack of all trades would be more useful than a skilled surgeon as the sea had countless injuries or diseases, especially on the grand line.

Zoro pondered the little reindeer human words then walked forward towards him, the reindeer human wanted to run away but he was immediately caught by Zoro by the scruff of his neck:

"We can't really wait for Kaya to learn things as we are speeding along, why don't you come with us, little guy?"

The reindeer struggled out of Zoro's hands and Zoro let him down the humanoid reindeer immediately started to hide wrongly again then Zoro pointed it out:

"Little guy that's not how you supposed to hide."

The reindeer adjusted his hiding spot and said:

"Don't I look like a monster to you? Why would I join humans like you?"

Zoro shoulders went up and he said:

"Why should I care how you look like? you a monster? you look pretty cute."

Kuina walked forward she wanted to pet the little guy, he was so cute!

The reindeer was startled by his words then by Kuina's actions of walking forward then he immediately jumped away as he morphed into a more reindeer like form and quickly ran away.

The old woman chuckled as she said:

"You want to take Chopper away? Good luck with that, his heart was scarred by humans long time ago, there's a low chance he will trust you, however, you need a doctor on your ship that's more knowledgeable than that little unconscious girl in my infirmary, ah I forgot I have to check up on her, you guys can enter the castle and wait."

The witch walked back into the giant white castle that seemingly looked to be made of ice and the crew followed her in, Zoro looked up and saw a pirate flag the wind battering it, it had a skull with crossbones and sakura petals on it.

Luffy looked at the flag as well then nodded his head for some reason unknown to others.

They entered the infirmary and looked over to Kaya seeing her wake up, Usopp was almost in tears and wanted to rush over and give her a big hug but a scalpel was almost found in his throat as the witch appeared from nowhere and she said:

"Don't bother the patient till she is fully healed!"

Usopp started sweating, this old woman was scary!

Chopper came into the infirmary room with a bunch of towels and his eyes went wide as he saw all of the humans inside, He wanted to run away but he was blocked by Luffy who suddenly intercepted him and said:

"You cool reindeer be my crewmate!"

Chopper blushed and did an awkward dance as he said:

"Oh. you fool you think I'm cool, I'm not cool you fool!"

Then he took a stance and he said:

"Wait for a little you think you can fool me with compliments?"

Luffy put on the straightest face he could as said:

"I'm not fooling you, you are cool!"

Luffy pointed up towards the ceiling as he said:

"You think pirates are cool right?"

Chopper's eyes widened as he started remembering on how his father talked about pirates and how they were warriors of the sea who embraced freedom, he always wanted to become a pirate afterward but since his father died that day he wanted to take on his mantle of healing and decided to learn under an old friend of his father Doctorine.

Chopper looked towards Doctorine and he asked her:

"Doctorine is it okay... I always wanted to become a pirate and these guys..."

Chopper knew these people took care of Wapool he was the one who murdered his father, even though the events didn't go like that in Chopper's eyes Wapool was one of the catalysts of his father death, Doctorine shook her head as she saw Chopper's eyes and she realized what he was thinking about:

"Chopper before you make a decision I have to tell you something, your father was already dying when he drank that concoction you made for him, it wasn't your fault, his days were already numbered."

Chopper's eyes widened in horror, he always thought he was the one to blame mostly for his father's death, Dr. Hiluluk but it seems he was going to die anyway, tears started to appear in Chopper's eyes while Luffy looked at the duo not knowing anything about what they were talking about.

Doctorine decided to tell them Chopper's story, how he ate the human-human devil fruit and ended up being shunned by his herd, he was already an outsider due to his blue nose but after he ate the devil fruit he became the black sheep of the herd and he was thrown out, he tried to befriend humans but they thought he was a monster and tried to attack and kill him.

Then he was saved by his father Dr. Hiluluk, they bonded quickly but Dr. Hiluluk had a disease that was eating at his life, Chopper read a book that if he found a special mushroom and mixed it with some other herbs he could create a concoction that would save his father's life, unfortunately, the mushroom was poisonous and the combination created a concoction that would explode upon ingestion...

Hiluluk hated how Wapool took the doctor's from the population and tried to confront him since he was already dying to create a message he drank Chopper's concoction and died in front of Wapool.

Of course, Wapool could care less about the man and then continued in his ways. Until the day the kingdom was attacked by the Blackbeard Pirates and they fled the kingdom, the rest was already known.

Chopper started to clear his tears up, his past was already exposed he wondered what these people would think of him?

Kuina Nami and Usopp approached Chopper and hugged him while crying loudly:

"Such a cute guy had such a sad past!"

Chopper was confused by their actions, shouldn't they shun him? even though he didn't kill his father he still ended his life earlier with his concoction.

Doctorine shook her head, Chopper still didn't understand:

"Chopper, you should know that your father had made a similar concoction to yours back then, he used yours because of how hard you worked on it, on how you even broke your antler in trying to find the mushroom, he didn't want your efforts to go to waste."

Chopper's tears that just started to dry up immediately went back into the hyper mode as he suddenly became a water dispenser.

Zoro watched as Nami Usopp and Kuina started to comfort the little thing.

Luffy wanted to comfort him as well but he didn't know how to and Sanji watched the things like Zoro did, Vivi didn't know what to say here, she was still extremely worried about her country.

Kaya wanted to go up too but she was tied to the bed by Doctorine.

After a few days of waiting Kaya was finally ok to go, Chopper was at the doors of the giant palace watching how the others were ready to leave, he suddenly went forward to Luffy and asked:

"Do you still want me in your crew?"

Chopper finally decided to himself that it was time to let the past behind and embark on a new adventure, he already learned quite a lot from Doctorine and he had a blue bag of books on his back where there were a few books he still didn't finish reading in rest he pretty much read everything that Doctorine had.

Luffy smiled towards the little reindeer person and he chuckled:

"Of course, let's go!"

Luffy took Chopper in his arms and walked towards the lift that would take them down the mountain, he recruited his second doctor!

Luffy was giddy at the thoughts and Chopper liked to be held he then got out of Luffy's hold and made himself comfortable on Luffy's head, Luffy didn't mind his straw hat was off since he had winter clothes on, even though it wasn't on his head it was still on his person dangling behind him by a string.

The straw hat crew finally reached their ship and were ready to leave when suddenly behind them the mountain started blossoming like a sakura tree, pink cherry petals look-alike lighted the winter island known as Drum Island.

Chopper started crying again as he looked at the mountain then he said:

"I'm going, Doctor!"

The ship unfurled its sails as Zoro took the anchor up, the log pose was set and hopefully, the next island would be Alabasta!

Unfortunately for Vivi, the chances were pretty small, but who knows?


	28. Vivi's concerns

The going merry was sailing quickly through the waters of the grand line as Vivi clenched the railing of the ship and looked at the ocean that was expanding in her view wherever she looked, she didn't know what she was supposed to do without an Eternal Pose there was no chance for them to easily find Alabasta's coordinates, damn her why didn't she learn them herself, she thought to herself.

Even though there were still a few days before the big fight between the imperial army and the rebels they didn't know where the next island would take them, up till now only skirmishes have been reported but Vivi knew about the rebel's leader Koza plans, he was her childhood friend after all and understood him to an extent.

She sighed as she looked at the straw hats training, she looked as Luffy suddenly dodged one of Zoro's now-famous plank training but then he got cracked on the head just like before, Zoro nodded his head, it seemed Luffy was learning quite fast that dodge, however, seemed to be based on luck if the next hit landed so easily.

Luffy started to nurse his head as an island started to make itself clear in the vision of Usopp who finished his training and was staying in the crow's nest resting he shouted for everyone to hear:

"Land-Ho!"

Zoro looked at the island and Vivi shook her head she would have realized if she was in Alabasta's waters from a mile away, it wasn't Alabasta, she looked at the island and widened her eyes, even though it wasn't Alabasta it was very near Alabasta! She was in luck!

But it would take two days for the log pose to set and half a day for them to get to Alabasta, would they make it in time? Vivi was worrying very hard about her people and her father, there was going to be a big problem if she didn't make it in time...

Vivi told the crew:

"We are very near Alabasta, we can't wait for the log-pose to set as we would have no time to intercept the rebels, anyone was any idea of what can we do?"

Zoro thought of something as he looked at the island than at Vivi:

"Vivi can you describe me how the will of your people feel, I can try to use my Observation Haki to try and locate the island, as we get closer to the island I can guide us to Alabasta."

Vivi didn't know much about Observation but she learned a bit as she asked around the straw hats, Vivi nodded her head as she started describing how her people felt:

"I'm not sure if you know but Alabasta is a desert island, my people were toughened up by the environment since they were little, life is hard in Alabasta especially since the rain stopped coming due to Crocodile's plans, they should be hopeful and waiting for a miracle to happen, they should have a tough quality to them."

Zoro nodded his head as he started to expand his Observation Haki to the extreme, however, Alabasta was still too far away, so Nami decided to ask Vivi for the right direction and started to sail in that way, with the help of Vivi who remembered little bits and pieces of when she was a kid and left the island and Zoro's Observation Haki they finally reached Alabasta's outskirts where they were met with a bunch of ships who started encircling The Going Merry.

The ships looked like normal ships with no insignias or paintings on the flag, Zoro narrowed his eyes as he looked at the ships, why would they want to stop them near Alabasta?

Out of the main and biggest ship in the encirclement came out a man who had a peculiar sword tied to his waist. Zoro's eyes started to shine as he looked at the sword from the handle to the sheath it looked like one of the Ryu Wazamono!

Zoro lacked in one sword and he had to use a normal sword in replacement which already broken when he fought with Blackbeard and he had to get a new one, Zoro had a few normal swords in a barrel down with the bellies below the deck of Merry.

Zoro eyed the sword better but he didn't know the name of it, Kuina's eyes shined as well as she looked at the sword, Tashigi gave Kuina the named swords manual and she started to go through them, at page 89 she found out the sword.

Kashu one of the fifty Ryu Wazamono swords, not much known about the sword besides its appearance.

Zoro eyed the sword then nodded his head, he needed a good sword anyways, great he could find one in Alabasta, Zoro jumped in front and Luffy wanted to help him take care of the ships but he shook his head and indicated for Luffy to back off he didn't need any kind of help here.

Zoro took the two named swords from their sheaths and entered in a stance, the Baroque works people looked at Zoro and started to laugh at him:

"Hahaha, what are you gonna do slash us from there?"

Zoro smiled at their words then suddenly all of the encircling ships were cut in half and sinking in the sea, Zoro suddenly jumped from the Going Merry to the main ship and slashed the man with the sword down killing him instantly and taking his sword.

He threw away the spare sword he still had on his hip and put Kashu there.

The alive Baroque works members started to swim away and Zoro let them, he could care less about these weak people, he got his hands on a named sword and he felt giddy.

Zoro jumped back on the Going Merry and they started to sail towards Alabasta where they docked at a nearby river to resupply, they met with no problems as Zoro didn't walk into the town so no one recognized the straw hats.

After they resupplied they sailed down the river then Vivi told her duck Carue to send her father a message, giving the duck plenty of father it was sent into the desert to go to the capital and send the message to King Cobra.

Along the way to Catorea the rebels capital, they met with a bunch of strange desert animals which became their extra food before they left they met with some kung fu dugongs one of the animals that stood nearby the river, Luffy beat them up and they decided to follow him. But Luffy was against it as they wanted him to teach them his techniques.

After a while Luffy made them stop following him and they decided to become pirates like Luffy, after a day of grueling desert traveling they finally reached Catorea and fortunately the rebels were only a few seconds away from leaving the camp and relocating!

Vivi looked around for Koza and immediately found him, he was a blonde man with a skinnier physique his skin was dark and he had red-tinted sunglasses on his face, he wore a brown coat with a blue shirt underneath and he had blue jeans and brown boots on his feet.

Koza's eyes widened as she recognized Vivi and he remembered about their past, a wizened skinny old man appeared as he looked at Koza then at Vivi and he started crying, Vivi put a hand over her mouth and she started to cry as well as she recognized the man known as Toto, he became a husk of his former self as before in Vivi's youth the man was quite portly.

Vivi tried to talk Koza out of his actions and even brought out proof that it was Crocodile's fault, Koza started to see red in his face as he realized that he got tricked by the sandy Warlord, the fate of Alabasta was in the Croc's hand from the moment he walked on its lands!

He had a great plan to subdue the population and become the rightful owner of the island, Crocodile was a smart and devious man that was for certain.

Koza decided to not disband the rebels and still do what they were supposed to do, he thought that there may be some spies inside both the imperial army and the rebels army, if not how could Crocodile know what was happening?

Koza decided to keep the same plan as before, he would know when a spy would make himself known, fortunately, Vivi made it up in time and warned everyone if not... things would have become hairy.

In the Rainbow base, the Casino which was owned by Crocodile.

All the numbers were there besides Mr 5 and Miss Wednesday, Mr 3, Mr 2, Mr 1, Mr 4.

The higher echelons of Baroque works finally met up with the boss Mr 0 Aka Crocodile, everyone freaked out at first bu Mr 1 was the one who broke the ice and said:

"Whatever you are the warlord, I wonder why did you call us here?"

Mr 1 was a man with short cut white hair who wore a sleeveless shirt which was unbuttoned showing his strong physique and brown skin he wore black combat pants and black boots, his partner was a blue-haired woman with a sexy body who wore nothing on her upper chest besides some armor for her twins, she wore black tight-fitting pants and high heels.

Mr 3 wore a blue shirt with stripes and white pants with white sneakers, his partner was a small girl with red hair, her hair was braided in twin tails behind her and she wore a green shirt a blue skirt and sandals with socks, he also had blue-rimmed glasses on his face.

Mr 4 was a fat man with a dumb expression on his face, he had a dog bazooka on his shoulders, it was a literal bazooka with a dog's head. He wore a green shirt and black shorts and boots, his partner was an old woman who wore a sweater with a Christmas tree on it, black pants and sandals. Her hair was red and done in an afro.

Mr 2 was the weirdest among all of them and he had no partner no speak off, he looked like a transvestite had short black hair and a had makeup on his face, he wore a pink swan tutu which had the words 'new kama Kempo' written in kanji on his back.

Mr 3 being the vainest and the guy who thought he was the strongest and deserved a better position started speaking after Mr 1:

"Yes boss, shall we call you Crocodile now? Why did you ask us all to come here?"

Crocodile spun his chair and made himself clearer to his agents, Nico Robin was already on his right watching all of the agents with a peculiar smile on her face.

Crocodile was a tall man with a strong physique he wore a fur coat and a suit, instead of a hand he had a hook for his left arm, the base of the hook was seemingly made of gold while the hook looked rather normal, he had a scar running over his nose horizontally and he also smokes a cigar at the moment.

He looked at all of his agents then said:

"I called you all out here because we lost quite a few agents recently, you should see that we are lacking some spots here, I even made my identity known because someone already leaked it, it wouldn't be much time before you would learn it."

Mr 2 said afterward:

"Ok boss we see it yah, but why have you called us over, it should be for something big right?"

Crocodile put a hand over his face at Mr 2's voice it was high pitched and annoying but the man had the devil fruit which was imperative to his plan so he had to bear with it.

Crocodile continued:

"We need to quicken the plan, you should already know what are you supposed to do, Mr 2 I'm counting on you as for the others scatter and Observe, we also heard from the millions that a peculiar pirate crew with the princess on board arrived in Alabasta."

The agents started to scatter as Crocodile told them to, Nico Robin looked at Crocodile then asked:

"Do you think you can beat that swordsman?"

Crocodile chuckled as he said:

"Maybe not if we were in a different island but I have the home field advantage here, it would be quite the hard fight so I don't want to fight him, hopefully, we won't meet till the end of the operation afterward, I will be a king."

Then his smile wore off as he looked at Robin then said:

"Of course you will have to keep your promise, Nico Robin, if not you will know what will happen."

His hook was pointed directly at her throat ready to pierce through but then he put it away as he smiled:

"I only keep you around, for one thing, so make sure you would tell me what's written on the poneglyph I want it to be recited to me as you read it, it doesn't matter what's written on it hear me?"

Robin started sweating internally if it wasn't a poneglyph which she didn't care about she didn't want to read it to the man, what if it was the poneglyph the man was looking for? He couldn't give him the location of the weapon known as Pluto.

She was in big trouble now...


	29. Crocodile's devious plan

The power of sand-sand fruit was quite a peculiar one in the logia tree, it didn't only give Crocodile the power to transform and manipulate sand but it also gave him the power to suck the water out of his enemies body.

Crocodile looked down at the husk of the fool who tried to attack him and chuckled to himself, Nico Robin was with him and he looked at the straw hat-wearing boy with interest on her face, he had a barrel of water on his body which he started drinking from making his mummified state to revert to his normal form.

Zoro appeared with the rest of the crew, they were now at the rainbow base here to stop Crocodile, after they informed both King Cobra and the Rebels about Crocodile's plan they knew that there was a chance for Crocodile to find out and that would be a problem, there were also his agents that they had to take care of, but if they cut down the head the body would wither and disappear, so they decided to take care of Crocodile first.

Sometime before this happened...

Luffy's tongue was out of his mouth as he whined:

"So hot, Sanji get me some meat!"

Sanji gave Luffy a kick on the head and said:

"You ate all the rations you gluttonous fool, there's no more meat!"

Luffy whined then he looked at the town that was getting nearer and nearer then used his devil fruit powers to rocket himself directly into it entering a restaurant immediately and ordering meat and some ale to quench his thirst.

The others shook their heads at Luffy's antics while Chopper walked forward and started to talk with Zoro:

"Hey Zoro, could I ask you something?"

Zoro looked at the now tall Chopper who looked like bigfoot, it was one of his transformations that made him stronger but slower he wore a cloak that helped him with the heat and hid most of his features:

"What do you want to ask Chopper?"

Chopper was interested in the dynamic in the crew and asked:

"It doesn't look like everyone obeys the captain orders, it seems like the crew is a bit chaotic, I'm new in the crew so I don't know how things work out in here..."

Zoro chuckled as Chopper hit the nail on the head, they weren't united at all on the surface but in their hearts, they knew how important they were to each other before Zoro could respond Kuina came forward and said in his stead:

"You see Chopper.. some of us joined Luffy because of some peculiar circumstances, so at first we didn't trust him even though he doesn't look like a scheming fellow, he is quite a simple guy, along the way he gained our trust with his actions, on the surface, it seems like we won't take his orders but we keep them in mind, we don't really act on them and we do what we want but we know what we are doing."

Chopper shook his head this logic had no logic that meant they just disobeyed the captain and the captain did nothing about it, it seemed this crew was somewhat different than the normal pirate crews out there.

Zoro chuckled at Chopper's expression and continued to trudge along in the dessert they were getting nearer to rainbow base.

Luffy finished eating at the restaurant and paid his tab with the pocket money he got from Nami. Afterward, he left on an adventure in rainbow base by himself.

Monkey D Luffy future pirate king created mayhem in rainbow base by shouting:

"Get your ass here Crocodile so I can beat it!"

Even though Zoro said he would take care of Crocodile himself Luffy wanted to take a shot at the warlord as well, he didn't get a good fight in a long while and he wanted to show the others what he was made of, with all the training he got from Zoro he knew that he was way better than before.

Luffy finally got to the casino but Zoro and the others caught up with him, he was so loud Zoro could hear him even if he plugged his ears, the same could be said about the others too, they decided to enter the casino together where they were met with a sign of pirates here and normal customers there, it was a crossroad, unfortunately, Luffy decided to enter the pirate crew door and the others had to follow him however Zoro immediately grabbed Luffy by the scruff his neck and dragged him back.

He looked at the corridor and used the sheath of his new sword Kashu to prod the ground and it immediately split open.

Zoro sighed as he looked down, it seemed this was a trap, fortunately, Zoro could pick up the malicious intent of someone below them that indicated the perilous situation.

Luffy sweated as he looked down at the trap then followed Zoro through the other door, after a few minutes they found Crocodile waiting for them down in his aquatic meeting room, banana gators were swimming outside the glass protection.

Crocodile chuckled as he saw Zoro and the others then he said:

"Demon Blade Zoro and his crew, what do I owe the pleasure?"

Nico Robin stood on his right but she didn't say anything as she saw the straw hats enter, Luffy wanted to shout and interject how it was his crew but Zoro stopped him, it wasn't the time to fool around now.

Zoro watched Crocodile staying leisurely on his seat then unsheathed Kitetsu and pointed it at Crocodile then said:

"You should know why we are here, I have a problem with you trying to take over this country and I'm here to stop it."

Crocodile chuckled as he eyed Zoro's sword but inside he was at full attention, he knew that Roronoa Zoro was strong and there was a high chance he would cut him down where he stood, fortunately, he had the surprise element as he didn't know anything about his hook or his sand-sand fruit.

But before Zoro could do anything Luffy launched himself at Crocodile and gone through him, Zoro narrowed his eyes even though Luffy's actions were foolish it did show that Crocodile had a logia devil fruit, there wasn't much information about his sand-sand fruit so Zoro wasn't sure about its powers besides controlling and transforming into sand, that's why he didn't throw himself at Crocodile yet.

Luffy tried to pummel Crocodile down but all his fist strikes went trough him suddenly a bunch of arms appeared around Luffy and tried to break his neck, Robin said:

"Treinta flower: Clutch!"

But Luffy was a rubber man so her actions didn't do anything, Crocodile narrowed his eyes as he realized Luffy was a devil fruit user and then he shot his hook ready to pierce it through the boy's chest.

Zoro seemingly appeared out of nowhere and deviated the hook trajectory, his blade took a dark turn as he cut Crocodile's chest but Crocodile transformed into sand and disappeared from where he stood not letting Zoro's slash touch him.

Zoro cursed, it seemed Crocodile knew a bit of Observation even though it was weak combined with his Logia devil fruit it would be a bit tricky to take care of him.

Zoro wanted Luffy to stop it but Luffy suddenly went through the upper floors trying to as he said it

'beat Crocodile's ass' Crocodile decided to change the playing field as he wasn't advantaged at all in this room, he was actually at a disadvantage, what if Zoro destroyed the glass and water entered in the room?

He would certainly die after all water was a double weakness of his.

Zoro sighed and then followed after Crocodile and Luffy while the others decided to take the stairs, Robin knew what to do and she decided to observe the fight from a distance.

Luffy finally followed Crocodile to the desert where he tried to fight him again, unfortunately, Luffy didn't know about Crocodile's weakness yet and this cost him, Crocodile used his hand to absorb the moisture from Luffy's body transforming him into a mummified state, fortunately, Luffy got some water in a tiny barrel from the restaurant for later use and he drank it when he realized his body was out of water.

Crocodile was ready to impale Luffy on his hook when suddenly the image of a blue tiger with dark tints in it appeared in his vision.

It was Zoro's three sword style technique Tiger Ascension!

Crocodile dissipated into the sand and in the desert, you couldn't realize where he went if he hid his aura.

Zoro closed his eyes as he started to stretch his observation haki to the limits, he needed to take care of Crocodile then take care of his agents.

Speaking of the agents...

Mr 2 slapped King Cobra on the cheek with his left hand the put his right hand on his face directly transforming into the man's appearance!

Mr 2 had the mimic-mimic fruit which let him transform into people he touched with his left hand.

One part of the plan was ready but Mr 2 didn't know that the plan was already foiled somewhat.

Mr 1 his partner along with Mr 3 and Mr 4 and their partners were watching from above as the rebels started to gather in the capital of Alabasta, Mr 3 pushed up his glasses and said:

"It seems it's all according to the boss's plan, we only have to observe and interfere when something happens, like Demon Blade Roronoa Zoro's crew interferes..."

Mr 1 opened his eyes then looked at Mr 3 then said:

"I know the plan why are you saying it again?"

Mr 4 the slow man said as well:

"Youuuu knoowww thattttt weeeeee knowwwww theeeeeee plannn whyyyy areeee youuuuu sayingggg itttt againnnn?"

All of his words were drawn out of his mouth very slowly.

Mr 3 wanted to say something else but he decided against it, he was a man of grace and patience with an artistic streak to him, he wouldn't bother with these brutes who only knew how to fight.

Back with Crocodile, Zoro was still trying to find his aura but it was hidden too well! the desert gave Crocodile the best hiding spot he could ask for after all after he transformed into sand fully his aura became almost negligible especially that he hid in his best environment.

Zoro sighed then he looked around if Crocodile wanted to hide there was nothing he could do to him, only if Crocodile wanted to fight him head-on he could take care of him.

Zoro tried one more time to sense Crocodile's whereabouts but there was no luck.

Zoro looked around the vast desert then looked at his crewmates who were watching from a distance and shouted at them:

"Guy's I think we can go, seems Crocodile is just a big chicken."

When he said that suddenly out of the sand an arm wanted to snake his way to drain away all his moisture!

A grin appeared on Zoro's face as he suddenly shoots a flying slash towards the location where the hand popped out of.

Blood started to gush out of the location where Zoro shot his flying slash and Crocodile couldn't hide his aura anymore that was now full in chaos, he didn't think Zoro's observation was so good as he couldn't find him, after all when he fought Doflamingo in a similar situation he was found easily by his fellow Shichibukai.

Crocodile vomited a mouthful of blood and looked at his chest where a slash mark appeared, he was bleeding at high speeds but Zoro quickly ran at him as he started spinning at the same time, Crocodile was in the air as a black dragon which spun in circles appeared near him and it started cutting him:

"Three sword style: Black dragon twister!"

Crocodile was starting to get faint from the blood-loss but he chuckled as he transformed back into sand, then his aura started to depart at high speeds!

He wanted to kill Zoro in one fell swoop but as he couldn't he decided to run away!

Robin looked with wide eyes at Zoro and how easy he took care of the Shichibukai, but she decided it wasn't time to talk with the straw hats and left to Alabasta's capital Alubarna!

Zoro tried to sense Crocodile again but he was getting away too fast!

Even though his aura was still chaotic after he transformed into sand he entered the desert and started to go through the ground at high speeds.

Unfortunately, Zoro was fast but not that fast, he didn't know any techniques that could help him in this situation as well.

Zoro sighed as he looked at the direction Crocodile was going to, it was the capital!

Zoro looked at his crew than at Luffy who wanted to follow Crocodile already then shouted:

"We have to go to Alubarna!"

Vivi was with them as she wanted to watch Crocodile's demise with her own eyes, even though she was happy that he got beaten up she didn't realize that Crocodile was still alive.

Zoro destroyed her imagination with the next words:

"Crocodile is still at large and he is going to Alubarna, we need to go there fast! If we foil his plan and it gets exposed the marines will take care of him anyways."

Shichibukai's who broke the rules of the marines were hunted even harder than the normal pirates, after all the marines lost face inviting a pirate to become a government official and then the government official being caught blackmailing and doing untoward things to the residents of the world government?

If you decided to be a villain at least don't get caught!

It was time to go to Alubarna and put a stop to Crocodile's devious plan once and for all, whatever it might be besides getting his hands on a whole country.


	30. Crocodile's devious plan pt2

Out of the sand near Alubarna a bloody and battered Crocodile appeared, he coughed up a mouthful of blood then cleaned himself, he sighed as he looked at his chest then he put his hand over the injury and mumbled:

"A strong armament Haki, fighting him head-on even in the desert... He is too strong for me right now, unfortunately, there's no time to take care of him, I will have to change the plan a bit."

He took out a mini den-den mushi from his coat and tiny blue=rimmed glasses appeared on the snail's face as it took the features of the one you talked to, quite the interesting little creatures they were:

"Mr 3 change of plans make sure King Cobra is secured I'm near Alubarna and I will need to get the king myself, get the bombs controls and stop the timer, you will need them for the next phase of the plan, Demon Blade Roronoa is too strong for me, I will have to put princess Vivi in a crisis here, even though Roronoa is strong he shouldn't discard the princess opinion as it's her people and her father."

Crocodile smiled as the plan was made in his mind, he knew what to do now.

Zoro was staying on the giant crab that Chopper talked to, it seemed Chopper could talk to any animal and understand their speech, with the help of the crab they could get to Alubarna quicker than they could get on foot after all Zoro was just a lone person and he needed the whole crew to take care of Crocodile and his crew, who knows what he did in Alubarna?

Zoro didn't know what Crocodile planned to do but he was sure he could take care of him easily, his strength wasn't that high even though he had an advantage because the island was his natural environment Zoro was now on, however, he knew how to take care of him after his first encounter.

Zoro watched as the crab started to speed up as they closed in Alubarna and they could see the rebel army clamoring around the gates ready to storm into the capital and attack, Koza stood in front of the army and started a speech about how the king deprived them of their water and needs and how he needs to go down and abdicate!

Vivi watched everything happen and nodded her head it was just like planned, suddenly one of the imperial army guards shot at Koza!

Fortunately, Koza was expecting such a thing and dodged in the nick of time but the bullet still grazed his left cheek making it bleed slightly.

The rebel army immediately went into a furor and attacked but that was only on the surface, the same could be said about the imperial army like the one who shot Koza was already being apprehended in secret.

Crocodile watched everything happening from the tower clock of the city as he smiled to himself, his plan was getting to its last phase Zoro found his aura immediately and scaled the tower clock meeting him face to face.

Crocodile scoffed as he saw Zoro then he looked down and spotted the rest of the straw hats and Vivi.

Crocodile smiled at Vivi then motioned with his hook at someone and King Cobra was thrown into the air directly into Crocodile's hand!

King Cobra looked at Vivi and shouted:

"Vivi do not do anything they tell you to its a trap!"

Crocodile sneered at King Cobra and used a bit of his power to take away some of his moisture making him look dehydrated in an instant

Vivi gasped as she looked at her father's body and started shedding silent tears, Chaka and Pell the guardians of the king were nowhere to be found, unfortunately, they got taken care of by Mr 1 and Mr 3, their devil fruit powers would have been useful in this situation but alas.

Zoro looked at Crocodile with narrowed eyes, he couldn't attack him or he would make Vivi's father into a makeshift scarecrow mummy, he looked down at Vivi but a rasped voice was heard from Cobra:

"Roronoa... don't the king can die but the country has to live on!"

Cobra was a king that put his citizens over himself he was a model for all kings out in the world, Vivi tears started to multiply on her face as she looked at her poor father then she shouted:

"WHY DO YOU DO THIS CROCODILE!"

Crocodile chuckled at Vivi's shout then said:

"For a single reason, and that's getting my hands on the ancient weapon pluto!"

King Cobra's eyes widened as his now wizened face realized why Crocodile targeted his country, there were some records on the poneglyph of the Nefertari royal family about the whereabouts of the pluto weapon, unfortunately, no one knew how to read them and King Cobra thought it was the best outcome.

Nico Robin made herself present by staying on the roof of a nearby building, King Cobra wizened face started to whiten at the presence of Robin, he knew about her, he knew that she could read the poneglyphs, if Crocodile got his hands on pluto everyone would be doomed!

Zoro was ready to cut Crocodile in two while he was monologuing but Crocodile tightened his hand on Cobra's neck and he said to Zoro:

"Don't even think about it Demon Blade, you are strong, yes, but you have connections and emotions that hold you back."

He pointed towards Vivi and laughed:

"Hahaha, you think if you do what she wants to you will win? You need to discard the weaklings and promote the strong if you struck me down now and King Cobra died you wouldn't have lost noting Demon Blade! at most, the king dies but that's not all."

Nico Robin took a controller with a big ominous red button on it and Crocodile continued:

"You see this remote controller? If Nico Robin presses it the whole plaza will go down along with all the citizens! Do you want to know where the bomb is hidden? Good luck on trying to find out!"

Then he shouted:

"Mr 1 Mr 2 Mr 3 Mr 4, take care of our friends here while I and Nico Robin go with King Cobra to have a little chat!"

Mr 1, 2, 3 and 4 made their presence known along with their partners and they suddenly attacked the straw hats

Mr 1 attacked Luffy with his steel-steel fruit creating steel blades out of his arms and trying to hack Luffy into pieces, here is where Luffy's Haki training shined, fortunately for him even though he didn't unlock Observation yet his instincts and senses increased by a lot from the training.

Luffy's only weakness was sharp attacks so all he could do was dodge when he tried to counter-attack a blade would pop out the place he would try to attack and almost slashed his fist.

Sanji looked at the weird Mr 2 as he was attacked by him and his new kama Kempo techniques, Their legs crossed as Sanji suddenly landed a kick in his torso sending him flying a bit.

Sanji lit a cigarette then took a long puff before he pushed both of his legs on the ground and followed him to continue his fight.

Mr 3 and his partner attacked Kuina and Kaya unfortunately for them Kaya made easy work of Mr 3 who didn't know how strong she was, a sudden:

"One sword style: One thousand sword blooms!" Defeated Mr 3 while Kaya slowly approached the twin tails red-haired girl and knocked her over the head, the physical training Kaya went through along with the crewmates made her faster and stronger than the average paradise pirate.

Chopper and Usopp fought the mole woman Miss Merry Christmas and Mr 4

Nami took out her trusted staff and easily parried one of the blue-haired woman's spike attacks, she knew Observation Haki and trained a lot with Zoro and Kuina even before they met Luffy so she was quite strong even though not new world standard for a navigator she was quite strong.

Zoro looked towards the direction Crocodile flew with Nico Robin and King Cobra and looked down at Vivi, fortunately, both armies stopped fighting and captured all the Baroque Works spies.

Zoro looked around before he could go and follow Crocodile he needed to find out where's the bomb, they had to either defuse it or throw it somewhere where it couldn't hurt anyone.

Zoro started to stretch out his Observation Haki to the maximum but unfortunately, he didn't have such a high mastery to completely feel how inanimate objects were like.

Suddenly his eyes glowed as he felt the Bazooka Dog of Mr 4, it was both an inanimate object and an alive one at the same time!

He started to dissect its aura and he had a breakthrough!

Since the bazooka dog shot out explosive balls that fortunately Usopp knew how to avoid along with Chopper, Zoro got a feel on how explosive things should feel.

He stretched out his Observation again but immediately he realized that they were standing on the bomb!

It was under the clocktower, Zoro narrowed his eyes what should he do?

Since he didn't have a response slashing it was the best answer!

Zoro took out Yubashiri and Kashu then he entered a horse stance:

"Two sword style: half a demon slayer!"

The tower was directly cut into two along with the bomb as it collapsed into rubble, fortunately, Zoro hit the weak point of the bomb, defusing it instead of making it explode prematurely, Zoro nodded to himself, he now realized that problems he didn't know the answer of could be fixed with one thing:

Slashing it!

Since he couldn't get Vivi's father hurt he only had to slash Crocodile faster than he could drain him of his water!

A lightbulb appeared above Zoro's head, this was the best solution!

He looked down at the fight's of his crewmates and realized that none of them needed his help, he knew that to make a crew strong he needed them to go through live combat as well to temper their fighting techniques, he couldn't only let them train their muscles.

Of course, if one of his crewmates seemed like they couldn't hold on and they would be heavily injured he would step in and take care of the opponent, however minor injuries were a must, he couldn't let them grow sheltered or else they would turn weak.

Koshiro taught him about this as well, it was in his guide book How to train a crew 101 after he failed both his daughters and his wife he wanted to find a way to get himself stronger so he started to study about how pirates were ranked in strength, and he realized that most pirates had crews, Mihawk was an exception as he was a freak of nature.

Zoro watched as Sanji defeated Mr 2 swiftly, after his defeat at Van Augur's hands he started to train harder and harder, he didn't want to go through the same thing again.

A rather quick hit to the head and Mr 2 was down for the count, Mr 4 and Miss Merry Christmas didn't have an easy time against Usopp and Chopper as Usopp trained quite hard and become quite strong, he took out a big hammer from his pouch and hit the mole woman directly on the head knocking her out.

Mr 4 was quite slow so he still didn't know what happened as he aimed his dog bazooka at Usopp but Chopper transformed into his horn point and started pushing him backward, unfortunately, he was very sturdy and Chopper could only push him for a bit.

However, in that bit of time, Usopp shot a newly made ammo which exploded in contact with Mr 4 and created a big fire on him, Mr 4 slowly rolled on the ground trying to extinguish the fire then blacked out.

The gun bazooka started to growl as Usopp wanted to pick it up and see it, he liked the concept of the dog bazooka and he wanted to take it with him.

The dog started barking at Usopp while Chopper came forward and started to talk with the dog bazooka.

Chopper nodded his head at the dog bazooka barks and he said to Usopp:

"His name is Roory and it doesn't seem he likes you Usopp."

Usopp flinched at Chopper's words, the dog bazooka looked so cool and practical, he wanted to wield it as well!

But the dog bazooka seemed to like Chopper as it walked forward to him and started licking him, Chopper laughed as the dog's tongue tickled him.

Usopp looked at Chopper and made a plan in his mind, with the help of Chopper he would tame the dog bazooka and make it his partner!

Luffy had the hardest time, fighting Mr 1 as he was his total counter, every time Luffy wanted to go in and attack Mr 1 would protect himself with his steel-steel fruit, Luffy narrowed his eyes as his arm started to twist like a rubber band then he threw it forward with quick momentum shouting:

"Gum-gum sling!"

The sling was quite fast and it hit Mr 1 directly on the head unfortunately for Luffy the man's whole body was affected by his devil fruit so a steel blade grew on his head and cut Luffy's arm.

Luffy grunted as his arm snapped back and he looked at the cut, blood started to pour out of his arm as Mr 1 said in a monotone voice:

"Even though my comrades got beaten I will take care of you and your friends, my devil fruit is just stronger than yours, give up now."

It seemed Mr 1 got bored with playing with Luffy and decided to land a finishing blow on him!

Luffy chuckled to himself then said:

"Let's see it Mr steelhead!"

Mr 1 frowned at the nickname and he created a circular saw that started vibrating at high speeds in his right hand then he quickly approached Luffy ready to saw him in two!

Luffy dodged by jumping in the air where he grabbed a nearby building and flung himself away from the steel man. Luffy started to think about how to defeat his opponent, the only way to defeat him would be to knock him out before he would bleed out.

Luffy nodded his head, what if he was made of steel? he would badger him into a steel ball that he would kick around!

He quickly threw his arm behind him as it twisted making it look like a spring combined with his momentum from flinging himself he threw himself in the direction of Mr 1 and attacked him directly:

"Gum-gum flying rifle!"

The saw and the flying rifle hit each other as Luffy's arm unfurled and slipped past the saw hand to hit him directly in the chest where sparks started to sputter, Luffy strength was nothing to joke about, hitting him directly in the chest, his chest caved in even though he protected himself with a steel layer, however, the steel saw cut into Luffy's chest as well almost reaching his torso and his ribs.

Fortunately, Mr 1 got knocked down as his lungs started to fill with blood from his chest caving in.

Zoro nodded his head as Nami hit the blue-haired spike woman over the head with her staff and ended the fight.

The fight didn't take more than a few minutes and Zoro prepared himself a bit then he quickly jumped away from the rubble and started to run towards Crocodile's aura.

He needed to take care of him, and it was now or never!


	31. Crocodile's last stand

Crocodile dragged Cobra towards the back of the palace where the tombs of the previous Kings were supposed to be.

Crocodile looked around the garden and pointed his hook towards King Cobra's face as he said:

"Where's the entrance to the tombs? You can tell me now and I will make sure your citizens won't suffer."

Crocodile knew what kind of person Cobra was he wouldn't flinch at all if he was threatened but if his citizens were to be threatened he would throw himself in the face of peril to save them. King Cobra gritted his teeth, the poneglyph of their family it supposedly had the location of pluto the ancient weapon of destruction from the void era.

Nico Robin eyes shined under her cowboy hat as she looked around, she wanted to read the poneglyph and see if it had any mentions of the void era, her dream was to read all of the poneglyphs and uncover the secrets of the void era.

Robin knew that it was something major because her knowledge of reading pongelyphs made her a wanted woman, she became wanted at the tender age of eight years old just because she learned how to read the ancient language.

Her home friends and family killed by a dastardly buster call of the marines, she sighed to herself as she remembered her past then looked as King Cobra entered a pattern in a stone pillar that stood nearby, a cave entrance opened and the stairs led down to the tombs of the kings of Alabasta.

They started to quickly walk down the steps of the tomb, Crocodile was impatient, he wanted to get his hands on the information as soon as possible, Roronoa Zoro was still on his back, he could feel his killing intent from a mile away, even though Zoro was still at the plaza Crocodile's rudimentary Observation could feel his presence.

Crocodile walked while dragging Cobra behind him then threw him away at the sight of the giant block of black unknown material, it was the poneglyph! It had some strange words written into it that Crocodile couldn't decypher at all, but he didn't need to, Robin took a look at the poneglyph then her fiery eyes transformed into sad ones, it wasn't the thing she came for, true to the rumors it was the location of Pluto!

However, she didn't want to give the location to Crocodile, the man was an unstable egomaniac with a penchant of murder, he wanted to take control of everything and to do that he needed a weapon of mass destruction!

Robin narrowed her eyes as Crocodile waited for her to decipher the words, Robin looked at the poneglyph a while longer trying to drag the time out, maybe that swordsman Roronoa would make it in time and take care of Crocodile.

All she could do now was pray that Zoro would come fast or else she would be dead meat, even though she was good at escaping she was facing a logia shichibukai like Crocodile, plus she was nearby of him.

Cobra wanted to escape from Crocodile's grasp while he was distracted by the poneglyph unfortunately for him he was too weak compared to Crocodile, he didn't get his Shichibukai position only because of his logia fruit, his strength was also extremely abnormal and his intelligence was nothing to scoff at.

Robin opened her mouth she wanted to bluff him, after all, he couldn't read the poneglyph she could just say whatever she wanted:

"The poneglyph doesn't have information about any weapon, it has some of the histories of Cobra's clan."

Crocodile narrowed his eyes as he tried to read Robin's expression then he chuckled as he snapped the cigar in his mouth in two with his teeth and veins appeared on his forehead:

"You think you can bluff me, Nico Robin? I know from a certain source that it has the information I need, read it now while you still can!"

Robin started sweating internally, who was that source? How did he know about the information of pluto's location?

Robin started reading:

"The ancient weapon known as pluto isn't an ancient warship, this was a misconception created to fool the people thinking that such a ship could exist, however, the real pluto is as strong as the fake warship..."

Robin didn't want to continue but she gulped her saliva down, she didn't want to die here at Crocodile's hands she still had her dream, the dream that stemmed from her late mother, the mother who told her to live, Saul the friendly giant who used his life so she could escape, he told her to live!

She had to live!

Robin wanted to continue reading but suddenly a crash was heard outside, with the help of Luffy's gum-gum rocket Zoro got to the location as fast as he could.

Zoro started to run quickly in the cavern-like opening all his three swords unsheathed, Crocodile knew Zoro was coming so he tightly clutched Cobra in his hand, Crocodile watched as Zoro came forward and wanted to threaten him again with the life of the king, he still needed Robin to finish reading.

But suddenly a flying slash hit his arm he quickly dissipated it letting Cobra free!

Cobra scrambled forward ready to run away Crocodile couldn't let his hostage go, it was his only way to restrain Zoro!

Unfortunately for him, Cobra was already quite a distance from him, the distance was negligible to Crocodile but not to Zoro!

Zoro muttered to himself as he looked at Crocodile:

"I will send you off with one of my stronger techniques."

Crocodile heard Zoro's muttering and paled at his words, he had to leave now!

Suddenly a bloody aura started to appear around Zoro, the screams of the damned were heard around him, he didn't use all three of his swords as he sheathed one, both Kashu and Kitetsu were encased in armament, Zoro closed his eyes for a brief moment before opening them again, a different light appeared in them, Crocodile stood petrified due to the killing intent Zoro exuded, the number of people Zoro killed wasn't small, his killing intent was nothing to scoff at!

Crocodile sweated as he tried to move his legs, he reinforced himself with his meager amount of armament but his proficiency was extremely low, even if he wanted to hurt Luffy's rubber body with haki he couldn't.

Crocodile had lived in the new world for a while and learned about Haki and it's applies but he didn't have enough time nor a good teacher to learn it properly, he learned by himself here and there and he could only learn the bare basics, so he started to focus more on his devil fruit so that even Haki users would have a bit of problem with his smart usage of the fruit. He knew how to dissipate his physical body in such a way not even Haki enhanced attacks could hit him, unfortunately, that would put him in a passive state where he couldn't attack.

Crocodile tried to dissipate his whole body and enter the soil, to accomplish his dream he needed to be alive!

But suddenly the bloody aura from Zoro increased as the physical images of bloody heads dripping their last remaining blood on the ground appeared behind Zoro, every face had a surprised look on their faces, they didn't realize they were dead even in their final moments, the scene changed from heads to other gruesome deaths, as the aura solidified around Zoro he suddenly disappeared from where he stood!

Crocodile looked around his back drenched in sweat, he didn't know what to do, he knew he was done for if the swords found their spot.

He tried to reinforce his whole body with Haki, he got some inspiration when he saw how Zoro used his Haki but inspiration wouldn't make up for years of not training it, slashes started to appear on Crocodile's body tearing his coat to shreds, blood started to seep out of the wounds but the blood didn't flow on the floor, it started to harden on Crocodile's body trapping him inside his blood transforming it into a makeshift cocoon.

Only his head was still visible and his face was pale due to the lack of blood, Zoro appeared again all his swords sheathed, he chuckled as he looked at Crocodile's situation and said:

"How do you like this technique? I created it for situations I don't need to kill."

Crocodile growled as he looked at Zoro then said:

"Why didn't you kill me?"

Zoro responded:

"Killing you would be a mercy, do you want to escape so fast? You have tortured the people of this country for years and now you just want to die? Don't you think it would be too easy to die?"

Cobra got up from the ground where he kept himself till the battle finished, Nico Robin wanted to make herself unseen but Zoro didn't let her.

He walked forward and Robin wanted to say something but Zoro beat her to it:

"I saw how you were drawing out your responses, this stone contains what Crocodile wants, doesn't it?"

Nico Robin paled at his words, did Roronoa want the coordinates of Pluto?

Zoro shook his head as he seemingly read Robin's mind and he said:

"No no you misunderstood, I don't care about such weapons, the only weapons that I need are my swords, To be honest, I wanted to thank you, your act of delaying helped me arrive in time and save the king, Vivi would be destroyed if her father died."

Robin nodded her head and she was ready to leave, after saying what he had to say Zoro decided to let her go.

Robin started thinking about Zoro, he looked pretty strong and he could be helpful with his crew of misfits, she knew that none of them were normal, she didn't know much about Haki as Crocodile didn't bother to explain to her but it seemed like the crewmates of Zoro knew some about it.

Maybe they could help her... or at least for some time, she needed a ride as well.

Zoro dragged Crocodile's cocoon while he walked away from the tomb with Cobra, Cobra got outside and walked directly to the upper levels of the palace Zoro followed him and showcased Crocodile's defeated body, both the rebels and the imperial army shouted in victory!

Vivi started crying loudly while Nami Kaya and Kuina comforted her.

Usopp Luffy and Sanji had smile's on their faces.

Cobra immediately invited the straw hats to a feast where Igaram's wife cooked for everyone, even Sanji was impressed by some of their dishes.

Cobra wanted for them to stay a few more days and Luffy decided to stay one more day before they left, after all, there was no marine presence at all near Alabasta, what could go wrong?

The next day everything went wrong in multiple places.

The first thing was the newspaper that came to Alabasta in the morning, the king took it to breakfast where the straw hats were and a few wanted posters dropped out of it.

The new ones were, Luffy "straw hat" bounty 50,000,000, Sanji "black leg" bounty 20,000,000, Usopp bounty 10,000,000, Cat Burglar Nami 5,000,000 Chopper "strange pet" 1,000,000, Kuina "swift sword" 70,000,000.

The crew cheered at the new bounties taking in their photos, Luffy had a photo with him smiling and doing a peace pose with his hands, Sanji photo wasn't technically a photo it was more of a drawing which made him look strange. He immediately started crying out on how this was unfair.

Usopp's poster had him looking manly with his chest puffed up and his hammer in his hand.

Nami's photo was of her finishing off her fight with the blue-haired spike lady her bo staff in her hand.

Chopper was in his heavy point in the wanted poster but there was also another image on his which showed his small form.

Kuina had the simplest photo showing only her face.

Zoro's bounty didn't change, remaining 350,000,000.

Suddenly another bounty poster dropped from the newspaper, a clump of blue hair was on it and it wrote on it 'only alive'

"Traitorous princess" Nefertari Vivi bounty of 100,000,000.

King Cobra almost died of a heart attack when he saw the photo of his daughter.

How did his daughter become a wanted person? What the hell!

Unknowingly to them, the world government had ears everywhere, even though there were no marines nearby that didn't mean the cipher phol organizations weren't.

Cobra wanted to go directly to the world reverie to contest this bounty when he heard from outside:

"Roronoa Zoro and his crew, get outside right now! you are arrested! Nefertari Vivi, you have to come with us!"

It seemed problems would come together and never alone.

Cobra wanted to rip his hair off at what happened, how could things go so wrong after literally one day of their kingdom finally reaching peace?

Was fate playing a cruel joke on him?

His only heir was a wanted woman? He had no heirs anymore who would inherit Alabasta in the future?

Cobra didn't know what to do in this situation, he was at loss for words.

Vivi looked at her bounty and didn't know what to say, she was more devastated than her father, how could this happen?

Why would this happen?

In Marie Jois a bunch of world nobles who wore their special 'outfits', the outfits consisted of a white astronaut looking suit with a see-through helmet that looked like a bubble, a fat world noble chuckled as he finished his pig roast which was fed to him by a beautiful slave with pink hair the worlds noble's slave mark was on her chest, she wore very little to no clothes only covering her private part, he ogled her with his eyes as he grabbed a handful of her bountiful chest and played with it while saying:

"Those fools who left Marie Jois, hmph, they don't deserve to control Alabasta any longer, they aren't celestial dragons anymore, now that we gave that woman a bounty the king has no descendants unless he sires another one Alabasta will fall into our hands!"

The world nobles started laughing in unison, the woman who served them food had a big smile on her face but under the smile was hidden pain hatred and disgust for these people. She wanted nothing more than to cut off the man's hand then murder off all of the other celestials.

Unfortunately for her, she had sea stone cuffs on her neck and her legs, there was no way for her to do anything!

She sighed as she looked down, she couldn't make any visual contact with anyone or else she would be slapped and kicked while being sent to her prison without any food, she had to obey but her will wasn't broken, she was bidding her time for when she would escape.


	32. Vivi's problems

Vivi paled as she heard the marine's words from outside, Zoro Luffy and Sanji started to do some stretching exercises, since the marines came it was time to leave. Zoro nodded at his crewmates and indicated it was a good time to leave.

Luffy started talking:

"Ok guys, let's go!"

Then he looked at Vivi and the wanted poster she held in her hands and said:

"Vivi you can come with us."

Vivi wasn't sure what went with her but she nodded her head and decided to follow the crew, there was nothing she could do anymore considering she had a bounty, royalties with world noble background wouldn't get bounties easily, that meant the bounty was issued by higher-ups above the marine fleet admiral!

Since she couldn't fix this she decided to follow her pirate friends, after all, she bonded quite a bit with them during their misadventures, and them helping her for no reason made her trust them a lot.

Luffy smiled as Vivi accepted his invitation then he motioned to her to jump on his back. It was time to run away and they needed to be extra fast so the slower crewmates had to jump on the backs of the faster ones.

Sanji took Nami Kuina took Chopper, Usopp took Kaya and Zoro was alone, Zoro would stay behind for a little while to take care of the marines while the others ran away.

Zoro made his way outside the palace and met with the marines that were outside, a pink-haired woman in a red-purplish marine captain suit with a fair face looked at Zoro, she was smoking a cigarette and had lipstick on her lips:

"Hina is surprised to see Demon Blade Zoro, Hina thinks he looks just like his wanted poster."

Suddenly she approached Zoro and tried to use her devil fruit powers on him which consisted of creating a cage around her opponent and trapping them. Zoro easily dodged and looked around to spot two more captains who didn't identify themselves, they both wore the marine captain outfits and had different hair colors, one blonde and one pink.

Zoro looked again and cleaned his eyes before he shouted:

"Coby and Helmopo?"

The blonde-haired man shouted in annoyance:

"Its Helmeppo Helmeppo!"

Coby smiled as he looked at Zoro then said:

"Zoro-san we meet again."

Hina eyes narrowed as she looked at the newly promoted captains then said:

"Coby Helmeppo, Hina thinks you guys know each other?"

Coby coughed a bit then said:

"Of course not Captain Hina-san we just met in east blue a long time ago you know uhh."

Hina decided to not follow on her thoughts it wasn't time for that and she wanted to attack Zoro again.

Unfortunately for her, she was way out of Zoro's league, suddenly Coby disappeared as he tried to attack Zoro from behind, he used one of the marines patented techniques Soru!

Zoro easily backhanded Coby away then blocked a sword slash from Helmeppo who appeared above him then easily threw him away he looked towards Coby and gave him a thumbs-up:

"You grew quite a bit."

Coby laughed then picked himself up from the ground, even though Zoro's attack seemed to be weak it rattled his bones quite a bit.

Hina eyes widened as she saw how easily Zoro took care of two Captain level marines and realized she couldn't do anything about him, he was on a whole another level, why did the higher-ups even send her here?

This was a vice-admiral or above threat!

Fortunately for her, Zoro didn't intend to do anything to her as he smiled then left too quickly for them to follow, maybe Coby could follow with Soru but there was no reason to as he couldn't defeat Zoro anyway.

Hina grunted then said:

"Even if we can't defeat Demon Blade we can destroy his ship! Where did you lastly spot his ship?"

Coby scratched the back of his neck awkwardly as he said:

"Umm, you see when we came we saw no ship..."

Hina was ready to tear the newly promoted Captain a new one when she heard that he saw no ship, how did they sail to Alabasta then? Don't tell me they swam, they had devil fruit users on their crew!

Before Hina could do anything else the remainder of the crew found The Going Merry where they left her, after a few minutes of waiting Zoro made his way over as well.

Suddenly a fire propelled tiny yellow boat came from inland at high speeds on it stood a shirtless man with blue shorts and orange boots, he had a necklace made of red beads around his neck and an orange cowboy hat with a smiley face and an angry face on it. His face was freckled. he also had a tattoo on his right upper arm that sai with the S being crossed out.

If you would look behind him you could see a tattoo with purple crossbones of a man with a giant white mustache.

The man stopped his tiny boat and jumped on The Going Merry, Zoro immediately unsheathed his swords, this guy was strong, almost as strong as that Blackbeard guy a tiny bit weaker, however.

Ace put his hands up and tried to explain but Luffy tackled him down on the deck and shouted in joy:

"ACEEEEEE!"

Zoro sheathed his swords, it seemed Luffy knew this guy, Ace chuckled as he got up and said:

"Ok Lil bro, won't you introduce me to your crew?"

Luffy nodded his head and got up while introducing Ace to everyone:

"His name is Ace and he is my big brother, he became a pirate a few years before I sailed."

Ace smiled while bowing:

"Nice to meet all of you."

The crew gasped, Ace couldn't be related to Luffy, he was so well mannered!

Zoro coughed then said:

"Ok there are still marines out there for us, maybe we should you know start sailing and catch up with one another after that."

Everyone realized that Zoro's words were true, especially the new crewmate Vivi, she didn't know what would happen to her if she was caught by the marines...

On the wanted poster, it was written only alive, who knew for what reasons they wanted her only alive.

Vivi was a celestial dragon in her youth and she knew what the celestial dragons could do, she didn't want to have anything to do with such type of monsters.

Vivi sighed as she saw how The Going Merry started sailing down the river, this would be the last time she saw her country!

At the end of the river which started the sea a bunch of marine ships was waiting for them, Ace decided to help a little since he was on the ship anyway, he cocked his fist backward and then threw it forward like one would do a normal punch, but of his fist came out of a giant fire that looked exactly like a normal fist!

The fire immediately destroyed the marine ships letting them go away easily.

Zoro narrowed his eyes, it seems Luffy's brother was a logia. Luffy's eyes became stars as he looked at his big brother and said:

"Ace you ate a devil fruit!"

Ace chuckled and said:

"Yeah more exactly the flare-flare fruit, I'm a fire-man!" To make an example he transformed his whole body into a fire then back into his normal form.

Ace then started to reminisce with Luffy while Sanji went to the kitchen to prepare launch for everyone when suddenly a scream was heard from the kitchen.

Sanji was looking at Robin who stood there reading a book, he had hearts in his eyes as he observed Robin's bodily proportions.

Zoro narrowed his eyes as he looked at Robin, he let her go why would she come here?

Robin smiled as she looked at Zoro then said:

"Hello there Mr swordsman we meet again."

Sanji didn't like being ignored but since she wanted to talk with Zoro he could only keep mum.

Zoro looked at her then asked:

"What are you doing here?"

Kuina came forward as well and glared at Robin then said:

"Yes, weren't you with Crocodile, why don't you go to jail with him?"

Robin chuckled and said:

"You should know that I won't simply go to jail if I'm ever caught." A sad glint appeared in Robin's eyes as she said that.

Luffy walked forward then said:

"You join my crew!"

Ace started laughing as he said:

"Just like in the old days huh Luffy?"

Robin became flustered at Luffy's request, he didn't ask her what was she doing here or who she was and he already wanted to join his crew? He was quite a simple man, wasn't he?

Vivi didn't like Robin at all because she worked for Crocodile but at least he didn't impede her progress much during her work for him so she could maybe forgive her if she decided to join Luffy's crew.

Robin realized that Luffy was serious when he asked her to join so she nodded at him then said:

"Sure Captain I will join your crew."

Luffy started doing a happy dance which was joined by Chopper, Usopp wanted to join the happy dance too but realized that it was time for his training so he started to lift some weights that were left around the deck.

Robin looked around the crew and realized that it was quite disorganized then looked over at Ace and her eyes widened when she said:

"What is the captain of the second division of the whitebeard pirates doing around here?"

Ace smiled at Robin then said:

"What is Nico Robin one of the most wanted by the world government doing in my little brother crew?"

Robin said:

"Touche"

Luffy looked at Ace then asked:

"You don't have your own crew anymore Ace?"

Ace shook his head then a smile appeared on his face:

"No but I joined Whitebeard pops, he is a great guy who I will make the pirate king!"

Luffy's face became red as he shouted:

"But I will become the pirate king!"

Ace laughed and said:

"Let's see little bro"

Luffy huffed then looked at Zoro who was training with Kuina and laughed at something Kuina said.

Vivi walked forward to Luffy and asked awkwardly:

"Luffy am I supposed to do anything around here? I would feel bad If I only stood around while the others trained."

Luffy nodded then said:

"Ask Zoro what to do, he trains everyone!"

Ace narrowed his eyes as he looked at Zoro, Luffy was the captain but Zoro did everything else a captain would, that was strange in Ace's perspective.

He walked forward to Zoro and Zoro stopped his training and looked at Ace then asked:

"Can I help you Ace?"

Ace wanted to test Zoro's prowess so he decided to spar with him so he directly asked:

"Are you up for a spar Zoro?"

Zoro shook his head as he said:

"On the ship? I don't think so we could destroy it rather easily."

Ace became flustered as he realized where he was he wanted to say something but he suddenly feels asleep as a snot bubble appeared at his nose.

Zoro looked at Ace with a strange expression on his face. Were all of Luffy's relatives this weird?

Zoro continued his training as Ace continued sleeping while Vivi asked Zoro for some training but he indicated to her that she should ask Kuina as his training wasn't good for her yet, her body was too weak to endure Zoro's training.

Ace finally woke up after a few tens of minutes and said:

"Ok then on the next island let's fight!"

Zoro smiled and said:

"Of course, I also want to see what the captain of the second division of the whitebeard pirates can do!"

Ace smiled at Zoro's words, his Observation Haki told him Zoro was quite strong and he still held back some strength on the surface.

After his fight with him he would tell Luffy why he set out, he needed to watch out for Blackbeard!

After a short while of sailing, they finally reached a small island where Zoro and Ace could unleash some of their strength.

Fortunately, the island wasn't populated with humans so they could unleash their full power!

Zoro smiled as he tied his bandana around his head then unsheathed all of his three swords, a peculiar aura appeared around him as the image of a skull materialized behind him.

Suddenly he slashed from where he stood and a long flying slash appeared which quickly made it's way to Ace, Ace used his fire fruit powers to quickly disperse the flying slash with a quick Fire-fist, when he looked at his fist he realized he has been cut as some small drops of blood dripped down from it.

Ace smiled as he looked at Zoro then indicated that they didn't have to fight anymore, Zoro was confused did Ace want to fight or not?

Zoro sighed as he sheathed his swords then tied his bandana back on his arm, Ace walked forward then said:

"I feel well knowing you're on my little brother's crew." Ace already knew what to think of Zoro after their first clash.

The crewmates didn't know what to say the fight was extremely short but also impressive to them at the same time.

Ace called everyone forward, he had to tell them about Blackbeard now, Sanji finished getting his hands on some of the local animal's meat to resupply and came forward as well.

It was time for Ace to disclose the truth about Blackbeard or also known as Marshall D Teach.


	33. Ace's worries

Ace looked around and made sure every straw hat was there so he could inform everyone of Teach's treachery, Ace then opened his mouth and said:

"Marshall D Teach, he took the name of Blackbeard after he betrayed Whitebeard, he was a member of the fourth division of the Whitebeard pirates under Division leader Tatch, Teach did the worst thing he could do on a pirate ship... He killed his comrade!"

Ace started to tremble in anger as he remembered how they found Thatch's body and Teach disappearing the same day, the other captains thought that Teach killed Thatch due to the devil fruit he fished out of the waters some days prior.

Teach was always a strange fellow in his opinion, but he didn't think he would go this far killing his crewmate, Ace continued his thoughts:

"The other captains described Teach as a mystery, most of them don't even know when he joined the Whitebeard pirates, the only one who knows is Pops himself but he refused to tell me anything about him, besides that he is a man with ambition, at first Pops, told me to not pursue him but I left anyway..."

Zoro narrowed his eyes as he listened to Ace's story then he said:

"Could you describe his features for me?"

Ace nodded his head, he needed to tell them how he looked as well or else they wouldn't know who to defend against, after he told them of his features Zoro immediately said:

"I know this guy, I fought him on Drum Island, his devil fruit is very weird even though his Haki wasn't up to par."

Ace eyes widened, that meant the trail he was on was right, he would meet Teach at one point if he continued to follow it, Zoro looked at Ace and saw how his eyes wandered, he seemed like he wanted to leave after Teach already but Zoro got in front of him and said:

"Ace, since you are Luffy's brother, let me be frank with you, You will lose against Blackbeard!"

Ace eyes widened at Zoro's words, did Teach become that strong? Zoro started explaining:

"You should know that his devil fruit is extremely strange, I felt it seep my strength away when I didn't use my Haki, I think that devil fruit is like Haki, making your logia invincibility useless! Unless your Haki is way above his I don't think you should go after him."

Luffy walked forward and told Ace:

"Ace if you go after this Blackbeard guy I want to go with you!"

Zoro looked at Luffy and shook his head then said:

"Luffy you still aren't strong enough to fight Blackbeard, I was equal to him on Drum Island and who knows maybe he became stronger up till now?"

Luffy wanted to say something but then he stopped as Ace put a hand on his shoulder and said:

"Even though I can't stop pursuing Blackbeard due to the crime he committed I guess I can stay with you for a while Lil bro, Zoro how about we train together? Let me teach you some new world techniques, you could help me by sparring with me a bit."

Zoro grinned at Ace's words, he really needed someone similarly strong to him to refine his techniques, after all, he was starting to stunt his own growth because he was fighting only weaklings, fighting Crocodile was tricky, but not because of his strength and mostly because of his devil fruit and his advantage being on a desert island.

Luffy wanted to join in the training for old times sake and Sanji, Usopp and the other's didn't want to be left out of it as well so Zoro decided to create a training regiment on the island they were anchored to.

Back on Marie Juais the pink-haired woman who tended to the celestial dragons last time we saw her was running away from a flaming palace, with the help of her quick mind and the reduced intelligence of the celestial dragons she created a diversion which she used to escape from her captors!

Fortunately, she got her hands on the key of her sea stone cuffs and now she could use her devil fruit properly.

Every time one of the marines that were guarding the island tried to attack her or put the collar and cuffs on her she would touch them and they would transform into kids!

As she ran away quicker and quicker she finally found out she didn't know the outlier of the island she was on!

As she looked around then backward she realized she was standing on a cliff!

Suddenly a yellow light appeared and a drawled and bored voice was heard:

"How annoying, these damn celestial dragons call on the marine admirals for the dumbest reasons, why do I have to catch their runaway slaves?"

A man who wore yellow-tinted sunglasses had short black hair and a small goatee and wore a yellow suit with orange stripes and a cape with the kanji of admiral on the back appeared out of the yellow light, his eyes targeted the pink-haired woman and he said:

"Hmm? are you the slave?" he looked directly at her chest and saw the slave mark then he walked slowly to her, Jewelry Boney had the worst life she could think of, sold as a slave since she was a child then force-fed a devil fruit so the sick fucks of celestial dragons could enjoy all the age ranges.

She cringed as she remembered her past, Kizaru or also known as Borsalino narrowed his eyes at the look of Boney, if Kuzan was here he would have said he just didn't see her but Borsalino was more thorough on his marine work, even though he felt a little bad of what he would do it was his job after all.

Boney closed her eyes then looked behind her and decided she didn't want to go back so she jumped backward free-falling in the air.

Borsalino sighed as he looked at the slave, he knew she had a devil fruit so if she fell in the water she was dead, if she fell on the rocks she was dead as well, whatever death would be a release from what happened here, he decided to not pursue her and just say he couldn't find her.

He disappeared in a beam light deciding to back to Marineford, there was no reason to remain here, he didn't want to meet face to face with an angry world noble.

As Boney fell her life started to run before her eyes, all the painful moments which led to her actions today, she closed her eyes, maybe death was a better choice for her?

Suddenly she fell into the water below, she near the red line and a giant splash appeared where she fell, a shout was suddenly heard:

"Pops, someone fell into the water there!"

A strong voice was heard but it seemed rather old and weak at the same time while being strong:

"Go over and fish the person over, it must be a slave of those damn celestial dragons, you should know those that escape most of the time decide to throw themselves over the red line instead of going back to their fates."

The voice from before continued:

"Ok yoi, Vista go over and help that person over, you know I can't go I'm a devil fruit user yoi!"

Back with Ace and the others, after sparring for a while with Zoro Ace realized that Zoro was a bit stronger than himself, as he said if he was equal to Blackbeard that meant even though the fight with him would be hard and long in the end he would lose!

Ace decided to train even harder he needed to defeat Blackbeard and take him back to Whitebeard so he could sentence him!

Blackbeard was on his dinghy when he suddenly sneezed and he had a bad feeling like someone had it out for him, but this was a normal thing since he defected the Whitebeard pirates and killed one of their commanders, but now it felt like a real threat was coming for him as he muttered to himself:

"Is Whitebeard himself coming over?"

His crew was ignoring his muttering as he did that from time to time, so they were used to his antics. He looked around his crewmates and decided after thinking for a while:

"I need to delay the plan for a while guys, I first need to fully master my devil fruit before we can get our hands on a rookie with a relatively high bounty, that Demon Blade Roronoa gave me big problems, what if all the rookies are the same?"

The others nodded their head in unison, one problem leads to another so they decided they needed to be fully trained before they set out their plan.

Blackbeard started laughing:

"Zehahaha, even though it will take me a while to master Haki I should be able to learn everything I can about the darkness-darkness fruit in a few months."

His crewmates started cheering, besides Lafitte he just stood there his cane in hand and watching the sail and the wind, he was their navigator after all he needed to look after the ship.

Zoro, Ace, Luffy and the others finished their training for the day and decided it was time to eat and go to sleep after today they needed a few more days till the log pose set, so they still had some days to train on the island.

Zoro watched how Ace trained his Haki and decided to mimic him, his training was a bit more complicated compared to his, considering armament, as for Observation the only way to advance it anymore was fighting someone with a stronger Observation than him or meditate for quite a long while to see any improvement.

Ace took some needles from his pocket pants and inserted his armament into them transforming them into black but the armament immediately faded away, the needle was too thin and small so he overflowed his armament with it failing to control it properly.

This training was a type that enhanced the control and strength of armament Haki, it was rather simple and it could be used on any type of small surface.

Zoro decided to use a leaf instead of a needle, but the moment he injected the leaf with a minimal amount of armament it exploded into shreds!

Ace looked with wonder at him as he said:

"You already know the stage above the needle training?"

Zoro shook his head as he said:

"To be honest I don't think Kaya or Chopper would let me have their needles so I could train with them so I decided to use a leaf."

Ace chuckled as he threw a few needles over and said:

"Here have some, if you could control all these needles at the same time while exerting perfect Armament Haki amounts in them for a few hours it could be said you have finished this training phase, my senior Marco taught me this training technique."

Zoro nodded and took the needles Ace threw over, it would be better to do things step by step instead of skipping over some training and then finding out he missed some important basics.

Ace smiled to himself as he looked at Zoro then continued his training. First, they would do their body training, then Haki training and after that, they would spar to finish the day.

Zoro made the training regiment as strict as possible with multiple exercises for the rest of the crew, he and Ace trained their bodies rigorously with the heaviest weights they had, Zoro even entered under a nearby river to use the water pressure to train his muscles.

Back with Blackbeard, he started his training as well at first he started to control his devil fruit powers little by little then exert them outside his body, he needed better control over his logia fruit, after all, it was a special logia fruit which needed quite a bit of time to master, it was a testament of his talent when he said he would master it in a few months.

Blackbeard looked over at his crew as each did his special training that they learned in their home towns, he smirked to himself, soon he would complete his crew, he just needed to become a shichibukai so he could get to Impel Down, he would get his hands on the strongest paramecia soon enough...

His plan would come to fruition and he would become the pirate king!

Luffy started sneezing heavily as he looked around himself then up at Nami who was ready to bludgeon him on the head with a plank for his Observation training, Robin was in the same clearing reading her book but sometimes she would take some peeks at her captain training.

At first, Robin was skeptical about this Haki stuff but when she saw Zoro and Ace dodging all of her attacks easily without looking she decided she wanted to learn it as well, it seemed useful!

She was going to be next on the ground after Luffy finished his training, Chopper was training with Usopp and Kaya, Usopp and Kaya joined earlier but only now they started training their Observation Haki as Zoro finally had enough trust in them after he finished Mr 4 in Alabasta.

The dog Bazooka was playing around nearby while Chopper told him to not wander too far, Usopp tried a lot of things to bond with him and he started to have tiny success.

All of the straw hat pirates were giving their all in their training not knowing that the Blackbeard pirates were doing the same.

And near the redline, a pink-haired woman was saved from drowning by a buff man with a top hat and a mustache.


	34. Mock Town

The log pose final set and they were ready to go to the next island, Nami started her instructions to navigate properly towards the next destination while Zoro Kuina Luffy and the others did a toned-down version of the training on the ship.

Ace also spared with Luffy from time to time so Luffy could get better at fighting against logias, even though he was barely learning Observation and it still was away from learning armament, knowing the way of fighting logias properly even without armament was a very needed knowledge.

Zoro watched from the crow nest while also observing the surroundings of the ship but all he could feel around were sea kings and no people, they were still a long way from land.

After a few days of sailing, they finally reached the town they were supposed to reach, it was Mock Town, a pirate town made for pirates!

It was practically pirate paradise as all the wanted men were running around without a care in the world, the crew decided to resupply here and wait for their log pose to set so they could go to the next island.

Unfortunately, tall trees can't escape the wind, a wanted man under Doflamingo the shichibukai known as Bellamy the hyena challenged the straw hats to a fight thinking he was all hot stuff and that their bounties were inflated, especially Zoro's, but for him, the surprise was that he almost died before Zoro even unsheathed his sword.

Zoro looked down at the blonde-haired man who had a scar under his left eyes, he wore a pink shirt with the jolly roger of the Doflamingo Pirates on it, he wore blue boots and gray pants and he also had a red sash tied around his waist.

He wanted to get up but the killing intent Zoro was exuding paralyzed him while he muttered to himself:

"no no nooo boss no I will do better boss!"

He was so scared he was hallucinating thinking Zoro was Doflamingo who came for him after he failed a mission, Zoro shook his head as he looked at Bellamy, what a failure, and he had a bounty of 50,000,000?

Zoro walked away while Luffy and Nami followed behind, the other crewmates were taking in supplies for their journey while they didn't have anything to do so they decided to go to the bar and enjoy some rum and food.

There they met with Bellamy who insulted them for a while before he touched Luffy's hat, Luffy was ready to take care of them but Zoro unleashed his killing intent making them piss themselves in fear, literally.

A blue-haired man who wore a dark blue fur coat around him blue pants and some white shoes had a yellow puddle below him as he started to crawl backward in fear of Zoro, it was just like he had seen death it wasn't just Zoro's killing intent that created this, it was their PTSD that created this, they were extremely scared of Doflamingo and the killing intent triggered this change in them.

However, Bellamy was a little bit better, even though he was a shivering mess on the floor at least he didn't piss himself like an infant. Luffy ate some cherry pie that the bartender brought and then he spit it out while saying:

"Old man this cherry pie is terrible!"

The bartender just said:

"I'm not the cook don't tell me this."

Luffy drank some ale and he said with a happy tone:

"Yo, this drink is really good!"

Blackbeard was sailing on his dinghy with his whole crew and he felt like he missed something, something very important, it had a circular shape and it was made with cherries, but he still couldn't truly get it.

Blackbeard started thinking when suddenly the log pose at Laffite's hand started to point upwards, Lafitte narrowed his eyes as he looked at the log pose then shouted to Blackbeard to take him out of his trance:

"Yo captain the log pose is pointing up, what should we do?"

Blackbeard looked at the accused log pose then said:

"I guess we sail up now, the sky island has good weather this season."

A smile appeared on his face showing his missing teeth as he continued:

"I'm pretty sure there should be some good devil fruit to take up there as well, it would be very helpful for us."

He started laughing while his crewmates joined in.

Back with Zoro and the others, Ace was still on the ship when he narrowed his eyes as he felt a familiar presence in the surrounding area but then the presence suddenly disappeared, was his Haki playing tricks on him?

Zoro also felt the presence appear and disappear but he as well wasn't sure what to make of it, was Blackbeard scared of them and he decided to hide?

Zoro shook his head, Blackbeard didn't seem like the guy who would plot, Zoro was wrong with his assumption, Blackbeard was a very treacherous fellow with multiple plots under his sleeves, but his simple appearance made Zoro think he was similar to Luffy.

In other words, strong but dumb. Zoro finished his bottle of ale and decided it was time to leave the bar, the bartender quickly cleaned the piss the moment it appeared as things like this happened often around Mock Town and he was familiar with such scenes.

Zoro, Luffy, and Nami walked away from the Bar and got back to the ship, they still had a few days left before the log pose set for the next island, they were getting nearer and nearer to island they had to visit, Water 7, where they could get a better ship, Zoro already talked with everyone about it, Usopp and Kaya protested vehemently about the ship saying it was a keepsake of the now late Merry but Zoro poured a bucket of cold water on them when he said that if they took this ship in the new world it wouldn't even get to its first island before it would be destroyed.

It was better to let the ship get a new home instead of it being destroyed, it wasn't particularly damaged as Zoro and the others took great care of it, even when they fought marines here and there they made sure no cannonballs struck it.

Ace was relaxing on the deck along with Robin who was reading a book, He, however, had narrowed eyes as he waited for Zoro before he asked directly:

"You felt him didn't you?"

Zoro nodded his head and he said:

"Yeah, of course, but he just disappeared the next instant."

Ace nodded his head, it was the same for him, what was Teach thinking about? He couldn't just get into his head and learn about it, Teach was a very secretive fellow and he couldn't guess anything at all about him, even though they lived with each other for almost four years.

Teach was always an odd one in his opinion, it seemed his guts were right when he cruelly murdered Tatch and ran away, Ace walked in circles around the deck as he thought about what to do, he had no particularly bright ideas also he wasn't sure if he was strong enough to take care of Teach by himself, he needed Zoro's help, he got stronger with his training but it wasn't too much of an increase, too little time passed and that didn't mean Teach couldn't train as well.

Ace got frustrated and he suddenly let out a fire fist towards the sea burning a bunch of sea kings to crisp, Luffy immediately went to jump into the water and Sanji shook his head as he jumped after him, Luffy seemingly forgot he was a hammer in the water and Sanji had to save him while also getting some of the burned sea kings so he could cook them for the hyperactive knuckleheaded captain.

Kuina chuckled at Luffy's antics while Chopper shook his head, Usopp was lifting some weights with closed eyes as he seemingly tried to unlock his Observation.

While it seemed that Robin was reading her book she was doing the same thing as Usopp trying to unlock her Haki as well.

Everyone was training in their ways even though it looked like they were relaxing, Zoro's words and explanations made them realize that the new world wasn't anything that they could go against at their current level, Nami took up armament and learned it quite quickly she could even make Luffy feel her hits easily.

There was quite the distance between Water 7 and Mock Town so they had to go to other islands on the way to resupply and set their log pose.

Blackbeard laughed as he looked at the downed form of a man who wore a blue shirt gray pants and no shoes, he was the lier Norland's descendant and the man that he would get help from to get to the sky island, even if he wanted to or not!

"Cricket, get up I just pated you, I need your help with this, don't you want to know if sky island truly exists?"

Cricket vomited a mouthful of blood as he looked up at Blackbeard and gritted his teeth while saying:

"I don't want to help you, you came here and threatened me with your crew, even if I die I won't help you."

Blackbeard chuckled to himself as he called:

"Laffite, Doc Q, come help our little fellow over here to change his mind."

Two giant ships made their way over as two humanoid monkeys jumped down from them while shouting:

"Cricket-san, we came to help you!"

Cricket coughed out a bit more blood then shouted:

"Masira, Shoujou, run away they are too strong for you!"

The humanoid monkeys, one wore a captain outfit with green hair and the other wore an orange-yellow jumpsuit he had red hair and goggles over his head.

Suddenly darkness enveloped both of them as they appeared at Blackbeard's side and he laughed:

"More helpers for me to get to sky island? Perfect!"

Cricket gritted his teeth as he looked at both Masira and Shoujou and he cried out:

"You fools..."

Blackbeard smile disappeared of his face and he said:

"Let me tell you something Montblanc Cricket, I want to go to the sky island and you will help me, Doc Q, get me the apples, you know the special kind!"

Doc Q chuckled, the harrowed hobo looking man and his heavily exhausted and starved horse made its way slowly towards Cricket and duo of monkeys, a strange yellow apple was in his hands and he force-fed it to Cricket, he coughed a bit then he said:

"it's done, captain"

Cricket got up from the ground like a robot but he gritted his teeth he didn't want to do what he was made to but the strange apple made his body being unable to be controlled, it was like he was a puppet that just got attached its new strings, it felt extremely wrong for him but there was nothing he could do.

The duo of monkey look-alikes were also force-fed some apples transforming them into robots just like Cricket, they had unwilling expressions on their face but they couldn't do anything just like Cricket.

Blackbeard nodded his head and he said:

"Use one of your ships and make it good enough to sail towards sky island." Blackbeard already knew one way to get to the sky island and it was something his former crewmates liked to discuss during their free time:

"Also Cricket, when will the knock-up stream arrive?"

Cricket eyes were dead but his mouth opened the same as he said in a robotic voice:

"Five days from now, enough time to outfit the ship into one who could easily ride on it."

Blackbeard nodded at Cricket then let them go to their work, he started training his devil fruit powers while Cricket and the crew of the monkeys helped them to outfit one of the ships, they were pretty big but Blackbeard didn't care much all he wanted to was to get to sky island, this was a rare opportunity as you wouldn't get the log pose to set upwards in any normal situation, well that was what his former crewmates said he wasn't sure if they were right but there was nothing he could lose from this anyway.

Luffy sneezed for some reason back on his ship, he also felt like he missed something important, something like an adventure in a very high environment, then he continued his Haki training as nothing happened, Ace chuckled as he looked at Luffy then said:

"Hey, Luffy I thought you can't get sick."

Luffy stuck out his tongue, he still remembered one day he got a bad sickness on Mount Colombo on Fusha island and Ace and Sabo had to take care of him, Ace would forever taunt him for it now.

Zoro looked at the duo then at Kuina who was dragging him down inside the ship, most of the crewmates realized about their 'situation' by now, of course, Luffy was the exception he still didn't understand why from time to time the ship would rock when there were no waves. He just took it as mystery turbulence of the sea.

Usopp sighed as he looked at Kuina dragging Zoro away from the crew then he looked at Kaya who was reading a medicine book and straightened his back:

"Kaya, umm you know.."

Kaya looked up from her book then looked at Kuina then at Usopp and smiled:

"Hmm, Usopp-san, you are already making such advances on me?"

Usopp chuckled awkwardly then he came forward and grasped her hand when Kuina opened her hand she found there was a ring in there it was handcrafted by Usopp himself and it had his and her initials on it, he got on one knee and said:

"Kaya would you please..."

Kaya didn't let him end as he put the ring on her finger and embraced him, she was all alone in the world with no relatives left and Usopp was her only light left, of course, she would marry him.

Usopp smiled as he reciprocated the hug, everyone else looked at the duo and when they heard Usopp proposed to Kaya they immediately threw up a big party.

It was time for a pirate wedding!


	35. Water 7

Blackbeard looked up as the knock-up stream started to shoot the ship into the air, his crew was holding on the ship for their dear life as the impact was quite hard on the ship, Blackbeard laughed as he used his devil fruit powers to nail himself to the ship then he said:

"This is good for us, even though I have to delay the plan it doesn't matter, sky island is different from our normal sailing places, it should have some good stuff on it Zehahahahah."

In Marineford a meet up between the top marines of the current decade was created, a man who wore the fleet admiral outfit along with a cap with a seagull on it, he had thin black-rimmed glasses on his face and a big beard, he was Sengoku the current fleet admiral!

A man who wore a red suit with a tall and buff physique was staying a few chairs away from him at the table, Garp was there as well picking his nose, Borsalino or also known as Kizaru was there as well, a new man with bushy black hair a tired expression on his face and a blue-white suit, he had a sleeping mask on in his hands and his expression looked like he just woke up, his skin was tanned and fair.

"Arara, what's with this emergency meet-up fleet admiral-dono?"

The fleet Admiral Sengoku smiled as he looked over at Kuzan then said:

"Aokiji, we are between friends here, you don't have to call me so formerly."

Kuzan or also known as Aokiji the moniker of his rank as an admiral of the marines shook his head and said:

"What a pain, Sengoku you just woke me up and I had a great dream."

Sakazuki or also known as Akainu snorted and he said:

"Did that dream contain me as well, Kuzan?"

Kuzan shook his head as he said:

"No Sakazuki as I said it was a great dream."

Garp started laughing at their interactions and he even slapped the table a few times, an old woman who stood near him patted him on the back and said:

"Garp, what are even doing here these days, shouldn't we let the youngsters take over?"

Garp shook his head at the woman then said:

"Tsuru what happened to your conviction?"

Tsuru vice-admiral of the marines shook her head as she looked at her hands which were trembling, since the accident that happened a year ago she couldn't perform her services as she could before, she was almost ready to retire. Garp's eyes shadowed as he remembered the incident then he scratched the back of his head and took a rice cracker from the bowl on the table.

They were the greatest fighting match up of the marine's all of the great fighters of the marines were currently located here Sengoku cleared his throat as he said:

"As you know Borsalino failed to retrieve the slave of those world nobles and they are quite mad at us now, they said that they would cut our funding."

Sakazuki snorted and he said:

"What useless world nobles, we do all the dirty work for them, hmph."

Sengoku shook his head, fortunately, Marineford was soundproofed and spy proofed against the world noble's, or else Sakazuki's comments would bring them great trouble on their heads. Garp and Sakazuki were on the same page here, the only thing they agreed on, the world nobles being useless.

Even though Sakazuki respected Garp a lot because of his prowess and his ability to capture the pirate king he still hated him due to his soft approach to pirates and how he dealt with them.

Borsalino shook his head and said:

"Those world nobles are quite scary when it comes to financial things but without us, they couldn't do anything, either way, it's a symbiotic relationship, even though they do things that we are supposed to prevent..."

Sengoku himself didn't like the world nobles but the upper echelons of the marines never gave him a time of the day, even though his position was high that was in the fighting department, there were giant webs created between the countries controlled by the world nobles, and they had their fighting force as well which not much was known about...

The chiper phol while controlled by the world nobles it was still a marine organization. Sengoku narrowed his eyes as his den-den mushi rang and a report came in:

"Hmm? why would you report this to me? Do you think I have time to care what Demon Blade Zoro is doing? hmm, what did you say? you have spotted Nico Robin on his ship? This is a problem then..."

Sengoku shook his head as he looked at his colleagues, it was time for a change of plans he looked around and he asked Kuzan:

"You remember the little girl from back then Kuzan."

A flicker appeared in Kuzan's eyes something that none of them caught, besides Garp then he said:

"Of course I remember, Nico Robin, why do you ask?"

Sengoku scratched his beard as he thought a bit about what he should do then said:

"CP9 is working undercover at Water 7, however, I'm not sure if they can handle Demon Blade and his crew by themselves, even our best fighter Rob Lucci would have great trouble with him, even though his devil fruit is strong as a zoan and he knows all of the Rokushiki techniques perfectly, Demon Blade is a new world level swordsman, he knows Haki and his swordsmanship level is very high, he is getting closer and closer to the peak of vice-admiral level every day, maybe he could even fight a newly promoted admiral to a standstill."

Kuzan looked at Sengoku with narrowed eyes as he asked:

"So what you mean is?"

Sengoku nodded his head and he said:

"You will travel to Water 7 to assist CP9 in capturing Nico Robin if you can capture Demon Blade and his crewmates as well the better, however, your prime objective will be getting your hands on Nico Robin. The higher-ups don't want a mistake as you did back then Kuzan if you fail now I don't think I can save you again..."

Kuzan narrowed his eyes, the Gorosei kind of hated his guts for letting Nico Robin go the first time, with his battle prowess he guessed his bounty would be amongst the highest with the yonkou, Kuzan shook his head, he liked his current lifestyle but he couldn't condemn Nico Robin for what she did, it was against his justice, he will try his best to capture her but if something intervened, it wasn't his fault then.

Kuzan nodded at Sengoku and was ready to leave when Sakazuki got up from his chair and shouted at Sengoku:

"Let me go instead of this freeze brain, I would do a better job than him!"

Sengoku shook his head at Sakazuki then said:

"Let me tell you the direct orders that I'm getting right now Sakazuki, I already knew what they would want but I should just give them to you so you can review them by yourself."

A similar snail to the den-den mushi was printing some papers on a nearby desk, Sengoku took the papers and threw them over to Sakazuki, Sakazuki grabbed the papers and looked over them then he burnt them to cinders, a scary expression could be seen on his face:

"Capture Nico Robin alive? Capture her alive? These old farts want to know what happened in the void age don't they?"

Sengoku shook his head as he said:

"Nothing we can do about them, they are the highest order of celestial dragons, patriarchs of the most affluent families, at best we could argue with them, at worst we would go to war, it's not worth it."

Sengoku stood on the fleet admiral position for quite a few tens of years after he took care of Roger with Garp, he realized how the marine's worked and knew that he couldn't do anything if he was honest with himself, he was waiting for Dragon, Garp's son to do something already, he joined the marines as a young lad to do a change in the world, but then he realized that the pirates were only a part of the problem and that the biggest problem makers were untouchable.

Sengoku sighed as he looked at Kuzan leaving the meeting room then he said before he could fully leave:

"Make sure to be thorough Kuzan, as your friend I don't want to be the one who has to capture you."

Kuzan shook his head and said:

"So troublesome, I just want to go back to sleep now *sigh*"

On The Going Merry, things were going well for the straw hat pirates, Zoro and Kuina were training while Kaya and Usopp were planning where to hold their wedding, they decided they didn't want anything big, they should just get to find a licensed priest so they could make their marriage official, maybe they could find one in Water 7?

Kuina looked at Usopp and Kaya then she walked a little bit nearer to Zoro and she asked:

"Zoro when will you give me the ring?"

Zoro looked over at her then said:

"There are quite a few rings down the deck you can get what you want."

Kuina shook her head then she said:

"No no not like that, I don't mean that I want a ring."

Zoro shook his head as in response that he didn't understand then Kuina just stopped pestering him.

Zoro looked over as she trained then scratched the back of his head while muttering:

"What ring, why should I get it to her? Can't she get it herself?"

Luffy was talking to Robin, it was just small talk so they could get to know each other better, Chopper was there too and Robin was entertaining the little guy with her powers making him laugh and roll around the deck.

Sanji came out of the kitchen to serve everyone food when Nami's voice could be heard from the crow's nest:

"Land-ho Water 7 ahead of us!"

On Water 7 a man with a closed shaved goatee who wore a work uniform of the Galley-la company he also wore a black top hat with brown trimmings at the edges, the best ship making company of Water 7 closed his mini den-den mushi, the man had a white skin he was tall and muscular yet also slim at the same time he has shoulder-length wavy black hair that is tied in a ponytail and a pigeon on his left shoulder who suddenly said in a high pitched voice:

"It seems I have some work to do earlier than intended, Nico Robin huh.."

The pigeon shook his head as the man memorized his orders and he called over one of his co-workers, the pigeon said in a merry voice:

"Let's go to Blueno's bar it's on me this time Kaku!"

A man with a square nose who wore a work jacket of the company came forward and he said:

"Should I call Kalifa-san as well?"

The pigeon nodded his head and Kaku's merry eyes hardened for one second as he said:

"One-second Lucci-san, I'm not sure if she wants to come though..."

A few minutes later a blonde-haired woman who wore glasses and a secretary outfit came following Kaku, her body was quite curvy in the right places even though she wasn't very tall. Lucci nodded his head then started to walk towards Blueno's bar

Kalifa narrowed her blue eyes, Lucci would always say something before the mission started, the only time he was this silent would be... If something major was going to happen.

The duo followed Lucci towards Blueno's bar where they met with the owner, Blueno a tall somewhat buff guy with his hair made in such a fashion that he looked like he had horns, he wore a blue shirt white gray pants and he was cleaning some glasses when the trio entered.

Blueno smiled as he said:

"My favorite customers come in, come in." There was no one else in the bar beside the four people

Luffy sneezed then looked over at Ace who was thinking about something and asked:

"Ace what are you thinking about?"

Ace shook his head as he said:

"If we followed his footsteps like before we should have met Blackbeard quite a while ago, I feel like something isn't right, I feel like he escaped us somehow..."

Luffy shook his head and got back to his training he was very close to unlocking Observation but something was blocking his progress, something crucial, something like a life and death fight...

Zoro looked at Ace as he was pondering, at first he wanted to leave and go search for Blackbeard on his own but he knew he wasn't strong enough and stopped this impulse, he didn't want to possibly die at the traitor's hands, he still had too much to live for!

Zoro yawned as they docket at Water 7, this should be the right place where they would get a new ship!

Zoro watched over the city which had canals built in between buildings, it had an interesting design he thought to himself.

Hopefully, nothing wrong or bad would happen while they visited this famous city of the grand line.


	36. One thing leads to another

Zoro watched as everyone started to debark from The Going Merry, he watched as Kaya and Usopp started to sniffle as they looked at the boat, unfortunately for them, it would be Merry's last ride with them on it. Robin watched everything passively, she wasn't that attached to the ship, they only sailed for a short while of a few weeks but she did like the atmosphere in the straw hat crew, it was certainly very different from what she was expecting.

Luffy was an airhead to her, all he did was play around and do whatever he wanted, Sanji was a 'womanizer' but he was quite nice and easy to manipulate in her opinion, Nami was a nice girl with a penchant for money Usopp was looking to be a decent guy who just wanted to protect his friends and his new fiancee, Kaya was an upcoming doctor and Chopper was just a cute little fluffball to her, Zoro seemed the most distant from the crew in her opinion, he always liked to train and only sometimes he would start to train with others these days, at first he would train with them daily but after a while, he started to depart from their daily training and he started doing harsher training by himself.

Zoro didn't know what Robin was thinking about when she looked at him so he just nodded at her, he started to train harder these days and let the others train by themselves as they already got the basics of the training down and they didn't his supervision anymore, they could train by themselves with no problem.

He walked around the streets of Water 7 along with his crew behind him, they left the Merry alone while they went to exchange all of their treasures into bills, they had quite a lot of treasure from where they stole from other pirates, combined with the bounties Zoro got in his early days of pirate hunting he was reaching the amount of his bounty in cold hard cash.

After finishing the exchange into big bills of bellies the straw hats walked away from the bank with a few briefcases full of cash. A few strange men wearing dark-colored armor with a pink star on it watched the straw hats swagger away from the bank, they immediately went away to their hideout on the outskirts of the city to meet with their boss.

There they met with a blue-haired man who wore nothing but a speedo and a floral aloha shirt, he was pretty buff and his nose was made of metal in a square-ish shape he also wore black sunglasses, they both walked forward to him as they said:

"Boss Franky, we got a big fish the amount of money they exchanged was hugeeee from what the briefcases say, should we go over to steal it?"

Franky looked at his two more trusted subordinates and said:

"You fools, what are their bounties? are they supeeeeer?, tell me Zambai, Barolo"

Zambai and Barolo scratched the back of their heads as they mumbled:

"We uh didn't check their bounties..."

Franky shook his head at his subordinates and said:

"If their bounties are over 100,000,000 and below we can try to attack them, but if they are above... I'm not sure even I could handle them, I might be a superrrr boss, but I know my limits."

Franky struck a pose putting his big arms over and joining them, two women with long noses and square and triangle haircuts appeared near him where they struck their pose, they wore nothing only but a yellow and red bikini.

Franky chuckled then he told them:

"Ok now tell me what their features were, I can look over their bounties then."

Zambai started to explain the straw hats features then Franky looked at his stack of bounties that he always kept with him, he made sure to always have them updated so he wouldn't kick an iron plate when he didn't need to:

"Hmm no, green hair, straw hat, no, no blonde hair, no, hmmm, WAITTTTT THEY ARE SUPER, 350,000,000, 80,000,000, 50,000,000 hmm it seems their bounties increased recently? wait, is that Nico Robin with them? There's no way we can attack them, I even heard some rumors about Demon Blade, anyways why are they in Water 7?"

Zambai started to sweat as he didn't know why Franky started to get a little bit angry at his subordinate then shook his head, everyone in the Franky family was his family there was no reason to get mad at Zambai, he just looked over at him and said:

"Take me to them, maybe I can pursue them to invest in us, diplomacy is not my forte but I need to do that... I need to do it for Teacher Tom!" Tears started to stream from Franky's eyes as he mentioned teacher Tom, them women started to cry with him and even Zambai started crying.

It seemed like Teacher Tom was really important for these people for them to get so emotional, Franky walked outside his hideout which wasn't a hideout, it was a big house with big bold words that wrote 'FRANKY FAMILY'.

Franky looked over at Zambai then asked:

"You must at least know where they were heading to right Zambai?"

Zambai nodded his head, he knew this much, he knew Water 7 like the back of his hand so he could infer where they would go based on the direction they walked in:

"Boss I'm pretty sure they are going to Galley-la"

Franky frowned as he looked at Zambai:

"Galley-la is it? You know that I'm not welcomed there anymore, not since the incident..."

Zambai started frowning then he said:

"But boss it wasn't your fault."

Franky shook his head, he still blamed himself for what happened back then, it was still fresh in his mind, how his creations did those things, how he became a wanted man himself, how he practically...

He couldn't think about it anymore he shook his head and combed his pompadour blue hair, then started walking over, he needed cash to buy the treasure tree adam, it was quite expensive but it was the best wood in the world to create ships, he already knew how he wanted to create his dream ship but money was little tight.

With the help of the straw hats, he could create his dream ship and give it to them... maybe they could complete his dream for him!

Franky decided to go against the rules Iceburg his old friend put on him so he could accomplish his dream, it was for the sake of his Teacher's old dream that he took over, Iceburg would understand after all the lived together for such a long time.

Franky reminisced a bit about the good old days and his subordinates decided to keep mum since he sometimes did that and he didn't like being interrupted.

Back with Zoro and the others, they finally got the right direction to the Galley-la company from a local and decided to walk there immediately, after all, they were here to get a new ship for the new world, maybe the Galley-la company would be kind enough to take care of their old one as well, maybe make it a tourist attraction or something.

They finally reached the entrance of the company, they looked around and saw how many workers were around doing their best to create ships, a man who wore a blue overall smoked a cigar that had blonder hair and safety goggles over his head approached them and asked:

"May I ask what are you here for?"

A big buff man with a white beard and tattoos who wore a white tank top walked over and said:

"Paulie, are you scaring customers again? don't tell me you want to steal their money to pay your gambling debt?"

Paulie scratched the back of his head, the big man was his friend and he saw right over his act, the big man came over and said:

"My name is Tilestone, may I inquire what are you here for?"

Paulie sulked then backed away, it wasn't his job to meet with newbies anyway, he went back to do his job and left the straw hats alone with Tilestone.

Luffy walked forward and said:

"We are here for a new ship!"

Tilestone smiled then he shouted:

"Kaku someone is here that needs your expertise."

Kaku the man with the square-shaped nose came forward running around and doing acrobatics like a monkey around the place, he was working on a ship a little distance away. He jumped down from where he stood and walked forward towards the straw hats, inwardly he narrowed his eyes when he saw Nico Robin then he smiled and said:

"What can I help you with customers?"

He looked fairly friendly Usopp walked forward and eyed him strangely, Kaku did the same, they looked rather similar but that was an illusion created by their nose.

Zoro coughed to stop them staring at each other than said:

"We need a big ship, but not enormous, an average middle size would be good a sloop would do, we have almost 350,000,000 to use for it, do you have any recommendations?"

Kuina nodded her head, it would be a great ship for them, Vivi was still waiting on the Going Merry with Chopper while most of the others went with Zoro, Chopper liked Merry quite a bit and he decided to say his goodbyes to her personally while Vivi just didn't want to leave the ship yet, she said she felt quite unwell. Sanji, of course, wanted to stay behind as well but he was needed to carry the sacks of cash and treasures, Ace remained on the ship to protect it, with him there, there were going to be no problems.

Nami walked forward, she was the best with money so she wanted to see what prices Galley-la would offer them and maybe haggle a bit with them.

But before they could enter the big building that housed ships a blue-haired man with an iron-nose came forward and said loudly:

"Yo, things aren't as superrr as I remembered them around here!"

Franky did his pose as he looked over at Zoro and the others, Kaku narrowed his eyes as he told Tilestone:

"Go get Iceburg over, nothing goes well when Franky visits us." Then he shook his head and face the crew while having an apologizing look on his face:

"I'm sorry about this, he is a local of a relatively medium-sized gangster family here, he likes to create problems for us occasionally, it was just unlucky timing, I will get you to see the ships after we deal with him."

Franky immediately got over to near the straw hats then shouted:

"Yo guys you won't get a good ship from here, they don't use the good stuff for the ships they sell for the public, I can help you make a SUPERRR SHIP!"

Luffy eyes were contemplating, he wanted to see a SUPERRR ship as Franky put it, and he was a rather beliving of whatever someone told him so he wanted to see what Franky could do.

Kaku narrowed his eyes, this was first now, stealing customers from Galley-la?

Franky narrowed his eyes as well under his sunglasses then started to say:

"You know they don't use the treasured adam wood on most of their ships, it most likely that you wouldn't be able to sail the whole world with one of their ships."

Robin knew a little bit about the wood so she decided to interject:

"I see then, without the adam wood there would be some problems I guess, you can procure it then?"

Franky nodded and smiled, he liked this woman, she knew how to work with the flow then said:

"I can immediately order it, I know some people on a nearby island that sell it, I can make a ship based on your ideas and fully incorporate them into the ship creating a ship made for you!"

A low clap was heard coming from nearby as a man wearing a brown suit with a blue tie, came forward, he had a shortly neat cut hair that resembled a fade, his hair a bit bluish and he had a little white mouse in his chest pocket, behind him came his secretary the same blonde-haired woman from before Kalifa!

Franky narrowed his eyes as he said:

"Iceburg."

Iceburg nodded and said:

"Franky."

An awkward silence ensued after they greeted each other which was broke by Franky's voice:

"Ok then now follow me back to my house, I can get the wood over immediately after all Galley-la can't get their hands on the wood normally, they are a 'legit' business after all."

Iceburg knew Franky was right, the world government forbade making ships with the treasured adam wood as they were the only ones who could use it on the marine ships, but that didn't stop pirates or some gray merchants to get their hands on the wood at all, while they could buy the wood at Galley-la there would be a problem if they were traced.

Franky had no such problems as he was already a wanted man, he was an enemy of the world government anyway so he could care less.

Iceburg couldn't stop the customers if they wanted to go with Franky and he said:

"You can go with him if you want, but we might also be able to get our hands on some wood but it would just take a little longer while what do you say?"

Zoro wasn't sure what to make of Iceburg or Franky, they seemed to know each other from their reaction and they didn't seem to have a good relationship.

He didn't know their story but he wanted his ship to be quickly made, he didn't have much time to wait on the island, as they progressed more into the grand line they got nearer to marine ford, that meant there was a chance people from marine ford would be sent to deal with him, he wasn't ready to take on an admiral yet so he didn't have time to waste around.

On the ship, Ace was training on the deck while Vivi was watching him, as he looked over at the sea he saw a man on a bicycle cycling on the water as he got near and near, Ace started to clean his eyes to see if what he was seeing was true.

He extended his observation haki then his eyes widened as he looked over, as the man quickly made his way over a voice could be heard:

"Arara, what is the second division commander of the whitebeard pirates doing on Demon Blade's Zoro crew?"

Ace knew this was a fight he wasn't certain he would win but he had to protect the ship till the others came back, he flared his aura to make sure Zoro could feel it, he needed back up, Aokiji wasn't going to be an easy opponent even if the two of them teamed up!

Aokiji narrowed his eyes as he said:

"Calling Demon Blade over are you? I don't like fighting you know, *sigh* whatever, I didn't want to come here anyway let's get this over with."

His body started to transform, becoming thoroughly white as he appeared near the ship in a burst of speed wanting to freeze everyone on it directly, Ace shouted:

"Chopper, Vivi get out of here now!"

Chopper carried Vivi off the ship in his tall humanoid form and started to run away, Aokiji didn't bother chasing them, he could feel that they were very weak with his Haki, and he didn't recognize Vivi as he didn't look at the newest bounties yet.

Ace transformed into the fire to counter the ice that was sent directly toward the ship, he had to make sure the ship wouldn't get destroyed so he had to lure Aokiji a bit more inland.

Back at the Galley-la company Rob Lucci got his message that Aokiji has got to the island, he smiled as he walked away from the ship he was fixing then the pigeon on his shoulder said:

"I have to take break guys."

The other's didn't bat an eyelid, Lucci was a hard-working man if he needed a break that meant he really needed it.

Lucci entered his trailer as he changed from his work clothes into a form-fitting black suit and put a white mask over his face, the face had a blank expression as he said into his mini den-den mushi:

"It's time to act CP9, capture Nico Robin alive, and hand her over to Admiral Aokiji."

Kalifa narrowed her eyes as she also took a break while Kaku said he needed to go to the bathroom.

All of them now wore similar black outfits with different types of white masks.

Zoro was already rushing back to the ship as he felt Ace's aura flare-up, he needed to help Ace! He could feel the bone freezing aura coming from Aokiji, he wasn't sure who had such an enormous and peculiar aura but he knew it was an enemy!

The others followed behind Zoro but they couldn't catch up to him due to him being way faster than them all.

Suddenly Lucci appeared and kneed Robin in the back while he put his finger directly on her back and whispered into her ear:

"CP9"

Robin's eyes widened in horror as she looked at the others who stopped and were ready to attack Lucci to free her, Luffy was ready to throw himself over when she shouted:

"Don't come over!"

Luffy wanted to just jump over and help his friend, despite the short time they had together Luffy considered Robin one of his precious Nakama but Robin shouted again to not come over.

Lucci smiled as he suddenly disappeared with Robin in tow, he used Soru!

Luffy looked around and spotted Lucci on a rooftop, he needed to save Robin, so he just launched himself directly there.


	37. The power of ice

Zoro was running at his quickest speed towards the docks where the Going Merry was located, he felt a very big presence near the ship and it didn't seem to be friendly even though it seemed to have a general lazy attribute to it if Zoro sensed harder it was like an icy dagger ready to slash the throat of an enemy.

Ace grunted as he took one punch from Kuzan who suddenly appeared at his back sending him barreling towards the shore of Water 7, Ace's back turned black as he used armament hardening to defend against Kuzan's physical strength but Ice started to grow around his back which he quickly melted with his devil fruit powers.

Kuzan sighed as he looked at Ace and said in a lazy tone of voice:

"Arara, we counter each other don't we Fire Fist? Fire and Ice, to be honest with you I wasn't sent here to fight with you, if you would leave now I would make sure I didn't see you, after all, you are quite troublesome to deal with." Kuzan didn't want the extra bothersome task of capturing Fire Fist Ace, after all, he barely came to get Nico Robin, in his opinion, it was better to stay in his room and nap while his secretary did the paperwork.

Ace shook his head as he said:

"I can't run away now, I can't let my friends alone here." Ace didn't talk about Luffy and just said he was friends with the crew, he didn't want Luffy to get in extra trouble if they realized they were brothers.

Kuzan narrowed his eyes, Demon Blade was friends with one of Whitebeards commander? What relationship did they have with their crew as a whole? If they were in an alliance or a sub crew of Whitebeard things would get tricky here, after all, Nico Robin joined Demon Blade's crew.

Whitebeard was tyrannical when it came to his crewmates and sub crews, after all, they were supposed to be his sons, and Whitebeard always looked after his sons and daughters. If they were only in alliance things would be smoother for the marines but if they were a sub crew things would get messy quickly.

Ace shouted as he punched forward a giant fire fist barrelling towards Kuzan who easily dodged it then he conjured three icy daggers which he threw at Ace at quick speeds, Ace rolled on the ground dodging the ice daggers which lodged into the ground behind him transforming the ground into ice as it expanded at a relatively quick speed.

Ace narrowed his eyes as he looked behind him and saw the power of the Chill-Chill fruit, he didn't know much about Kuzan as Admirals were the top powers of the marines and they rarely left the headquarters, besides his devil fruit powers everything about his prowess was unknown, Ace didn't know if he could leave here alive, he didn't overestimate himself, he wasn't on an Admiral's level yet even though he became a commander of Whitebeards division, after all, he only supplied in because the other commander died due to Teach's betrayal.

Ace put his arms together then joined his hands together putting his fingers in a cross position throwing a cross-shaped fireball towards Kuzan at high speeds, Kuzan somersaulted in the air dodging the fire cross when Ace smirked.

Drops of fire that looked like green fireflies appeared out of Ace's hands as they quickly approached Kuzan's location as he landed the wisps started to burn him, Kuzan scoffed as he was clad in haki even though he didn't activate hardening his normal haki was enough to protect him from the fire.

Ace arms made an X motion as the fireflies exploded while he said:

"Hotarubi: Hidaruma!"

Smoke engulfed Kuzan's figure as he became unseen by the naked eye, even his aura disappeared, Ace's eyes narrowed, Kuzan's aura disappeared because he masked it not because he was dead, Ace put his guard up there was no way Kuzan was going to run away after that attack so he put up his guard against any sneak attack the marine would throw at him.

Zoro made his way towards the docks where he found Ace standing his ground firmly looking around darting his eyes in all directions making sure he wasn't going to get attacked, Zoro wanted to quickly come and help him but suddenly behind him a face appeared which said:

"Arara Demon Blade, you shouldn't have come." An icy body was ready to collide with Zoro trying to freeze him directly but fortunately, Zoro's observation was quick enough to alert him, he barely dodged sideways but his left arm still got encased in ice.

Zoro eyes darted around as Kuzan suddenly disappeared again, Kuzan was toying with both of them as he already got the message from Rob Lucci that Nico Robin was captured, since he was here anyway he decided to see what the new rookie had in store.

Zoro flexed his muscles as he broke the ice that encased his left arm then he started stretching it, his muscles were a bit stiff but they started to heat up quickly after he broke the ice, Zoro narrowed his eyes, it would be hard for him to escape the ice if his whole body was trapped in it, even though it wasn't impossible to escape it would sap him of quite a lot of energy.

Zoro unsheathed all three of his swords as he extended his observation haki to the maximum of its capability now he was back to back with Ace as he asked him:

"Who's this guy? from the uniform, I'd say he is a marine."

Ace nodded his head as he told Zoro:

"He isn't any marine, he is Admiral Aokiji, I don't know how we will escape out of this one, you should contact Luffy and tell him to run."

Zoro nodded his head as his mini den-den mushi opened its eyes on his wrist and he told it as loud as he can:

"We need to evacuate the island, an Admiral is here!"

Aokiji sighed as he heard Zoro, he didn't particularly care about anyone else besides these two and Nico Robin, in his eyes, the other straw hats were barely children he would play against, after all, only Zoro had a bounty above 200,000,000.

The sigh that he let out unknowingly alerted Ace, as he put his fingers forward fire bullets quickly made their way to his location hitting him squarely in the chest inflaming it, bothered by the heat Aokiji let out a wave of cold wind extinguishing the flames as he muttered to himself:

"Can't even let out a sigh." He wanted to sigh again, damn these young kids, they want to make him work, don't they?

Zoro suddenly appeared at his location and slashed with all of his three swords at the same time directly towards Aokiji's vital points

Aokiji quickly caught two of his swords with his hands and started to freeze Zoro but then Zoro used his head to quickly leave a gash on his chest which didn't let out even a drop of blood as it quickly healed right back up, only white steam came out of as the wound healed.

Zoro's eyes widened as he used Haki in that attack. but his attack didn't even make Aokiji flinch!

Zoro realized this was a fight he couldn't win but he didn't back off, he couldn't let his friends get caught by this guy so he had to delay him here with Ace!

Ace shook his head as he looked at Zoro fighting Aokiji, it was time to use the team attacks they trained to use on Blackbeard, Ace made a motion with his hand and Zoro backed away from Aokiji, Aokiji narrowed his eyes as he looked at Ace and Zoro as their aura's reached their peak.

Aokiji frowned, did they want to make him take them seriously?

Luffy ricocheted directly towards Lucci's last location as he quickly looked around, he had to save Robin!

Even though their time together was brief he considered her one of his nakamas and Luffy didn't let any comrade behind!

Quickly he looked around but he couldn't find Lucci anywhere, he remembered Zoro's words about Haki as he looked around, what he wouldn't give to know Observation already, that way he could find Lucci's and Robin's auras, unfortunately, he was only one step away from unlocking it but something was blocking his progress, something important he was lacking...

Luffy started to quickly look around the place as Sanji and the others were on the ground, they heard Zoro's announcement through their mini den-den mushis but they couldn't let Robin behind!

Even though their conviction wasn't as hard as Luffy's they still believed that they should go and rescue Robin!

Luffy's mind raced something that it rarely did even in a very perilous moment but now he realized how little he was prepared for such a situation, he had no techniques for such a kind of situation and he was stuck in a passive state that he bitterly hated, he looked around and jumped from building to building cracking their structure as he didn't control his strength at all to improve his speed. But he couldn't find Lucci and Robin at all!

Zoro's voice was heard again from the den-den mushi which said:

"Retreat now! I don't know how much time I can delay him."

Franky was confused about the situation as he looked for his client's whereabouts then he saw one of his clients being abducted by a strange guy with a white mask and a top hat that strangely looked like the one Lucci wore most of the time.

Franky told his subordinates to go back to protect the base while he slowly followed the man trying to see what he wanted to do with one of his potential clients.

Franky's eyes widened as he realized who was kidnapped, it was Nico Robin! the most wanted woman by the government, she was with the straw hat guy and demon blade? He stealthily followed the kidnapper as he tried to make himself unseen, as the kidnapper was going from rooftop to rooftop and Franky was on the ground he thought that he couldn't see him.

Lucci smiled under his mask as Franky followed him, he thought to himself that he could finish two missions at once, after all, his original mission was Franky anyway, even though it was only a rumour that he got Pluto's blueprints Lucci didn't care, his mission was to take him to his boss and that was what he was going to do.

Luffy eyes were practically bulging out their sockets as he tried to find Lucci and Robin, but he just couldn't, his frustration increased to an immense amount as he quickly flashed around the buildings, finally, Zoro's voice was heard the third time:

"If you aren't away from the island already I cannot help you anymore..."

Back with Zoro, both his arms were encased in ice as he trembled from the wind, his body was fully black as he activated his ultimate mode of hardening, Ace was the same colour as him after he transmitted the last message Aokiji froze both his arms and the den-den mushi was dead now, he couldn't send any more messages to his crew.

Zoro clenched his teeth as his upper body expanded his muscles bulging with veins as he muttered under his breath:

"Two gorillas: muscle expand"

His upper body was already muscular but after he used this technique he grew another layer of muscles, he looked like a fierce gorilla ready to pound his chest to show his dominance.

This form was used to break the ice as it increased strength but lowered speed at a moderate level, swordsmen fights were based mostly on speed, Zoro rarely liked using this form as he would use it only on people who had more strength than him.

His muscles deflated to their normal form as a peculiar and dark aura started to encroach him, he grew two more heads and four more arms making him look like a vengeful asura spirit that was out for blood.

Aokiji's eyes narrowed as he looked at Zoro, that looked like awakened Haki form but it wasn't at the same time, he realized that because he couldn't feel the Haki aura from the form, Aokiji shook his head and said:

"You are quite the unique guy Demon blade, unfortunately for you, it seems I have to go now" He already got a message that Nico Robin was caught so he didn't have to stay, Sengoku didn't say anything that he should thoroughly capture the whole crew, after all, he found them pretty weak and he didn't have anything against them, he wasn't sure what did they even do to warrant bounties as he didn't hear them doing any crimes at all.

Chopper and Vivi finally met with the others as they looked at the distant battleground of Zoro Ace and Aokiji. They finally got on the ship and they started sailing away immediately, Luffy was still going around Water 7 but they couldn't stop him from finding Robin, they started searching as well after Zoro's first message but they started to doubt themselves after the second and when the third came they realized that they couldn't find Robin in time so they decided to run away, even though they wanted to save Robin they wouldn't throw their lives away when there was no chance of success.

Maybe if the admiral wasn't present they would have continued to search...

Zoro gritted his teeth as his eyes turned red and he disappeared from Ace's side and Aokiji's senses, suddenly Aokiji was cut into countless ice pieces as he transformed into a pile of ice, Zoro appeared back where he was and then shook his head as his transformation was undone then he sighed as he looked at Aokiji transforming back into his normal form.

While Aokiji reconstructed himself Ace threw fire all around the place creating a fire-zone where he pulled a giant ball of fire from and then he threw it at him while saying:

"Dai Enkai: Emperor of flame!"

The giant ball of fire that looked like a miniature sun was quickly making its way towards Aokiji, Aokiji got bored of playing with the duo so he decided it was time to end this, he flared his Haki as he activated Hardening as he conjured a giant iceball which crashed with the miniature sun:

"Iceball!"

The miniature sun was disappearing at a quick speed but the ice ball was also getting melted, it couldn't be stopped after all ice was still ice, but then when the miniature sun ran out and only a small bit of ice remained it transformed into a bird shape and quickly made it's way into Zoro's stomach knocking him from his feet to the ground as Aokiji's voice was heard:

"Pheasant beak: lite version"

Zoro coughed up a mouthful of blood as the ice started to melt in his wound Zoro expunged the water from his body not knowing if Aokiji could freeze it again and freeze him from the inside.

It was better to be safe than sorry, hopefully, Aokiji couldn't make his blood into ice or else he would have died a long time ago.

Aokiji looked bored as he watched the duo then he said:

"Well, I have to go now, been nice to spar with you two, see ya."

He turned around and hopped on his bicycle which he left in the same position, then he looked as he remembered something then said:

"Let me give you a gift before I leave."

He stretched his hand out to the two of them as suddenly they became two ice sculptures with a vivid display of emotion on their iced faces.

Aokiji nodded at them then started pedalling away on his bicycle ignoring the Going Merry as he made his way back to headquarters, he did his job as Sengoku instructed, and now he was too lazy to take care of the others, they got Nico Robin.

Luffy couldn't find them he gritted his teeth as he made his way back to the docks where he saw the sculptures of his first mate and his brother:

"Ace, Zoro you!"

He started running towards them, he could feel that they weren't sculptures, he, however, didn't know what to do as he looked at them.

The crew made its way back to the docks where they saw Luffy's figure running towards two ice statues

Then they recognized the statues figures and features...


	38. Announcement

Fanfiction abandoned


End file.
